Pongo’s Recovery

This is Pongo. She’s a 6 year old Texas girl that made her way up to Boston. Pongo Rue gave us a huge scare this weekend when she starting having symptoms of a stroke or brain tumor. The first ER’s neuro exams showed complete loss of vision and major left sided deficits, and basically told us we should take her home to tell her goodbye. We took her to Mass Veterinary Referral Hospital yesterday for a second opinion, after spending what we thought were her last few hours in her favorite hammock. She was admitted to the ICU under neurology services last night for close monitoring. I met with little bug’s neurologist today and found out that Pongo managed to do the most Pongo thing so far. Her MRI and CSF fluid showed evidence of a nasty little thing called cuterebra in super rare form. Basically a fly larvae from a rabbit hole crawled in through her nose and burrowed its way through the right frontal lobe of her brain. She will be in the ICU for a few days receiving steroids, antibiotics, and a medication to kill the larvae. We are looking at expenses for two ER visits, an ICU admission, neurology consults, blood work, urine, x rays, MRIs, general anesthesia, lumbar punctures, IV fluids, steroids, antibiotics, anthelmintics, and monitoring. Help us get Pongo back in ping pong shape!

Pongo is under the care of Dr. Troxel and his neurology team at Massachusetts Veterinary Referral Hospital