persimmonfrost | Entries tagged with donation

I see a lot of stories about dogs and cats who have been rescued and a few of them have really touched me. One of them is the story of Boo, a bulldog puppy with hydrocephalus. With permission from Boo’s mom, Diane Messer, I’m going to post his (and her) story here so you understand a bit of what’s going on with him.

Boo is a 7 week old bulldog/beagle mix I ran into while looking on craigslist.com… I periodically check on there for puppies/kittens/etc that may need handraised, which I consider my specialty and I very much enjoy. I’ve always wanted a bulldog so I saw the ad for him and his siblings. My chihuahua has a mild case of hydrocephalus and so from previous research I knew what he had immediately. I contacted the people who had him and they had stated he was kind of sickly and smaller than the other babies. I told them I would take him since I’ve seen his problem before… so two days later I had a transport meet them in Indianapolis to pick him up… it was a five hour run for him and boy he was tuckered out!

The next morning we took him to see my regular vet, who is an older guy but usually he’s really good… just not this time. He confirmed it is hydrocephalus, weighed him (3.9lbs)… and gave him a dose of Panacur and sent one dose home… But he refused to give him anything to help with the fluid in his head, even though I had researched and had been given advice on what medications would help… wrote those down, had them in hand. All he would say that day was “There is no cure for it.” which of course I already knew! Tomorrow we see a vet in my town (8/27/12) and hopefully she will be patient and kind enough to listen… without reccommending he be automatically put to sleep. If she doesn’t help, then we will be taking a trip to KY to an actual neurologist vet. We plan to do whatever has to be done to help Boo. I figure there’s a reason I ran into his little picture.

As for me, I am a 31 year old mother of three (ages 12, 11, and 9) who is a stay-at-home mom and technically disabled. The dogs/puppies/etc that I rescue and eventually rehome give my life some kind of meaning. I don’t understand why but I just go with it. It makes me happy… and I’m sure it makes them happy too.

I started following Boo’s Facebook page and was so impressed by the care his family is giving him that I decided to donate a little something to his ChipIn. It wasn’t much; I don’t have a lot to give away, but it seemed like a good cause.

Unfortunately a couple of days ago, Boo began to act oddly. His vet wasn’t available so he was taken to a new vet (Tracey Gillespie at the IVEC) who told Diane that he had a heart murmur (In itself not always a huge problem) and he might be suffering from congestive heart failure. (A bigger issue to be sure, but not one that will necessarily kill him any time soon. My father lived with CHF for a quarter of a century, and was not a man to take great care of himself!

What this means though, is at best the diagnostics, vet visits and treatments for both the heart problems and the hydrocephalus are going to cost a lot of money. Boo’s family is committed to his welfare and will do everything possible to see that he has a good life for as long as it’s possible. His mom has said that if the time comes when he does not have a good quality of life, then they will do what needs to be done. I find this reassuring.

I’m writing this not to ask you to donate money, though if you want to, that’s great. Rather, I’m asking you to spread the word about Boo. If this story gets picked up by the media, someone out there may be able to help them with the astronomical costs related to the surgeries this little guy may face. I know money is tight for most of us. But it’s easy to post and repost.

Now you may ask how I know that Diane is on the up-and-up, and that’s a fair question. After having followed Boo’s saga for a while now, I have to say that my opinion is that if it’s a hoax she has a LOT of people working with her and it’s a very well thought-out hoax. But when I asked her for copies of Boo’s bills, she responded immediately and I’m going to link to them here so you can look for yourselves: Here is the bill from the Eastside Veterinary Hospital and this one is from Indianapolis Veterinary Referral where Dr. Gillespie took care of Boo.

So if you’re of a mind to help either by passing along this story, or donating a few bucks to the chip in, that would be great. This little guy is going to end up putting a big dent in his family’s budget. But — and I recognize that not everyone will understand or agree with me on this — our four-legged kids are family too, and we don’t give up on them unless they’re suffering. Boo is not suffering. He’s happy, and with luck one day he’ll be relatively healthy.

Thanks for your attention.