Scooby needs an MRI

Hello everyone,

Many of you have met Scooby-Doo, a sweet but troubled child. For those who haven't had the pleasure to meet this goofer, here's his story:

Scooby arrived at our home in October 2017 as a rescue dog from a Houston pound; he was next in line to be euthanized. The plan was to foster him and give him love, food, and shelter until he was ready to get medical treatment for his heartworms. Once he was heartworm free and gained some weight, we planned for him to find a new home where he would be happy and loved. However, things did not go as planned...

Scooby turned out to be a very, very troubled dog. He would not let anyone get near his face to give him love, he was very destructive of our home due to his separation anxiety, and it was the scariest thing to watch him react to other dogs. The first year with him was extremely difficult for everyone in the house but somehow, we made it work as there was no place for Scooby to go to other than the pound; we didn't have the heart to do that. Aside from his crazy dog behavior, we could see he had a sweet side that would be obvious more and more as we gained his trust and he accepted our love.

A few years into his "fostering", Scooby was a completely different dog. He was a happy pup full of energy, and we loved on him every day. He would play with his toys, eat his bones, go on car rides and stick his head out the window, and even learn to "speak" to get us off the couch or bed to give him attention. We fell more and more in love with him as time went by. However, his separation anxiety and his dog aggression did not improve as much as we had hoped and caused him to be rejected (and returned) from a new adoptive family. He was returned to us THREE days after he was adopted because the new family couldn't handle his temper and said he had no hope.

As heartbroken we all were, we took Scooby back and gave him even more love. That night, Scooby was sobbing and it was obvious his little heart was hurt. It was then we decided we would do our best to keep Scooby happy and never ship him away again.

Currently, Bekah has ownership of Scooby as I have been away and unable to take him on my travels. She decided to take on his care these past two and half years and he continued to learn how to be a dog more each day. He has even gone camping and cohabitated with a cat! No doubt he was living his best life.

Today, we took Scooby to the doggy neurologist as he has now developed seizures. These seizures came out of the blue. One night, on Dec. 28th, Scooby had what we thought was a seizure, according to Bekah's brother who was babysitting him. That same night he had another episode and finally, on Jan 8th, he had his first witnessed seizure by Bekah; a full-on tonic-clonic seizure. After his last seizure, Scooby hasn't been the same. He is unable to fully stand and eat his food, he does not respond to commands, he is constantly pacing around the house, and he is incontinent. His pacing is so severe that he does not stop until he collapses from exhaustion or hits a wall. He seems to be confused all the time and is not interactive. He has a new left-sided weakness that causes him to have a weak left paw that he drags around when he paces. On a bad day, if we get him to stand, he loses balance and collapses to the ground. He doesn't even care if he sees another dog anymore, zero reaction... Something is seriously wrong with him.

We took Scooby to the vet and ruled out any metabolic causes. Everything has come back negative, he is otherwise a healthy boy leaving us with what we feared the most: a brain tumor. Today, at the neurologist, we were told that his neuro exam and symptoms point to the right side of his brain, but can not determine a prognosis nor an appropriate treatment unless an MRI of his brain is done. This MRI will cost us $5,000. This MRI will tell us if his tumor is operable or non-operable. This MRI will tell us if Scooby will make it out of this or not. This MRI will help us medically target his symptoms. This MRI is also $5,000 which Bekah and I do not have. The MRI cost is a money black hole, yet we really wish we could do it.

It breaks our hearts today because we can not afford to do this MRI on top of his other medical bills, his special food so he can eat, and everything else that has come as an expense to him not feeling well since Dec. 28th. It breaks our hearts because we know what the MRI will show but maybe, just maybe, we are wrong.

It is so hard to watch him pace every day until exhaustion, it is so painful to watch him pass by his food bowl and lose his balance, it is infuriating not being able to help him come back to himself.... but we are doing the best we can.

Today, we are writing this to ask for help to get Scooby an MRI. We are not sure we can gather enough money to do so, but this is our last option. This MRI will give us closure. Either way, Scooby has lived such a good life full of love and yummy foods and we have come to the understanding that this may be one of our last times with him. We got prescribed steroids that we hope work to decrease any brain swelling and hope he returns to being himself even if it is just for a little longer.

If you wish to help, you can send a venmo to @Rebekah-Smetana or donate here. Any help is appreciated as we navigate this change in Scooby's health.

Scooby's first Facebook post!