Support Hank's Journey to Health and Happiness

If you've followed Hank's journey, you know that Ryan and I have been working diligently to care for him over the last 9 months. As of December 23, 2024, Hank is still dealing with health issues, likely a food or environmental allergy. However, there could be another underlying issue causing his health issues (Thyroid, etc.).

We are desperate to help Hank feel better and to find a manageable solution for maintaining his care.

Despite numerous trips to the rescue's vet, we have not made meaningful progress on obtaining an answer to what is causing his skin issues. Hank continues to get skin infections (bacterial and yeast infections), ear infections, and flakey and crusty skin. We bathe Hank once or twice weekly at Pet Supplies Plus. Hank has been on a prescription Hydrolyzed food, limited ingredient wet food and more recently a very limited diet consisting of only his prescription kibble and real salmon. He is currently on Apoquel and Cytopoint to control the itching.

Mid-November I made an appointment at Med Vet Dermatology, scheduled for March 12th. We had to bring Hank back to the rescue's vet on December 6th because of another skin and ear infection. At that time, their veterinarian determined the best course of action was to have him seen by a dermatology consultant.

I was able to find a veterinarian dermatologist at Metropolitan Vet in Louisville, Kentucky that could see Hank sooner than Med Vet and an appointment is scheduled for January 2, 2025.

Ours and the rescue's opinions on how best to help Hank medically did not align. Despite me offering to help fundraise for treatment (through crowdfunding efforts), they felt the best next steps was to keep my March 12th Med Vet appointment (cancel with Metropolitan Vet) and keep working with their vet and see how things go with Cytopoint. I strongly believe we need more specialized intervention. After months of taking Hank to get medicated baths, back-and-forth to the rescue's vet (which is an hour drive one way), numerous medications and no meaningful progress in identifying what is causing his medical issues, we did not feel this was an appropriate option. Hank has gone for months with crusty, dry, flaky skin - leading to skin infections, yeast infections and a very foul odor. This has not been a good quality of life for Hank.

Ryan and I feel the right thing to do for Hank was to fully adopt him so we could fully take over his care. We feel that involving a vet professional who can take the time to evaluate him and involving a dermatologist specialist is critical after 9 months of treating him with no real answers.

Ryan and I have personally invested a significant amount of time and money in helping Hank. Since April, we have been paying for Hank's wet food, salmon oil, special shampoo, weekly or twice-weekly baths at Pet Supplies Plus and washing his bedding every single day for the last 9 months (due to excess skin shedding, flakes, dander). Our goal was to find Hank a loving forever home and we never had plans to adopt a 4th dog. However, we acknowledge Hank's ability to get adopted is so very limited since he's a senior dog with special medical needs.

Hank was officially adopted by Ryan and Julie on December 23, 2024 - officially Home for the Holidays!

The current plan is for Hank to be seen by Healthy Pets for a full exam, senior bloodwork, thyroid testing, and potentially other diagnostic testing on December 28th

We have three dermatology vet appointments scheduled, so depending on how the appointment goes on Saturday, we will move forward with either Metropolitan Vet in Louisville, Kentucky on January 2, 2025, Dermatology for Animals - Akron in February 25, 2025 or Med Vet on March 12, 2025. Quotes from these dermatology specialists have ranged from $1,400 up to $2,200. A full work up at our local vet is TBD.