Support Billie's Road to Recovery

Hey there... my name is Julie and I'm a self-employed musician seeking assistance in paying for my sick little girl's vet bills (pun un-intended).

The story:

Billie Howliday Slick (my sweet, smart. sassy four year-old rescue mutt) started showing signs of distress about 8 weeks ago... it began with a simple upset stomach. I took her to her primary care clinic and they gave me some anti-diarrhea pills and they seemed to help mildly, but all the while I couldn't help but notice her stomach getting bigger by the day. Eventually I noticed that she was struggling to breathe, so I brought her back in for bloodwork and X-rays. They discovered that her albumin levels were dangerously low and were concerned about her liver function. The X-ray thankfully did not show any mass, but she was dumping fluid all over her belly. She had 2 liters removed and they referred me to some specialists... but the earliest appointment we could get was still 3 weeks away. I made it and crossed my fingers...

The draining helped for a few days, but the the bloating and wheezing soon came back, worse than before. I called other nearby specialists on the list and was suggested that I should take her to the ER (where we had the upcoming appointment). Luckily the clinic wasn't very busy and they took her back to see a doctor... and they immediately noticed that the fluid build up had gotten so bad in her chest that one of her lungs collapsed. They suggested overnight hospitalization to drain her again, to gather updated bloodwork and then she'd finally get an ultrasound the following morning.

The ultrasound could not find anything conclusive as to what was causing this gastric distress/nutrient malabsorption so they asked me if they could anesthetize her and perform an endoscopy to explore further down her GI tract and to collect a sample for biopsy. I accepted nervously and the procedure went smoothly. She was discharged a few hours later with some meds and a special low fat diet plan and we will hopefully know in a week what has been making her so sick.

I thought that first visit to vet was already very expensive at $1200, but the round at the ER basically octupled that. I am a freelance musician with a pretty empty touring schedule this year, so it's impossible for me to cover these costs on my own. Billie's been everything to me since I adopted her 3 years ago and we've already beaten a bout of nasty heartworm disease... we've healed each others' hearts during a really hard time and now I'm asking for your help in getting my puppy back to her healthy, spunky self.