Wordless Wednesday - Drop something...please!

 

Yeah, we had McDonald's. We had just gotten home from our Autism support group meeting

It's never just easy

We decided to schedule the MRI for Aloysius.  We know he'll most likely need surgery but we wanted to get the diagnostic testing done. 
Well, the $1200 for the MRI and the $2000-$3000 we were quoted for the surgery was wrong. 

The MRI is $2500 plus all the vet visits because their vet needs to examine him.  Surgery will run $3000-$5000.
So instead of around $4000 we're looking at $8000.
We don't have enough in savings. 
So here comes the donate button.  Any help is greatly appreciated.  I hate asking for money, but everything is in such a state right now. 
We are checking out how much it would cost to have the testing and surgery done in NC, but it will still run us several thousand dollars that we just don't have. 

Doggy days

Aloysius went to see the vet today.  The news is a little confusing.
He is doing well on the medications but he does need to get that test.  It's $1200 and while money is tight we're going to do it because he needs it (plus we know Ben has a job).   The test will let us know if he still needs surgery or if the medication will be enough.
While he could stay on the meds for the rest of his natural life we'd prefer not to do that.  He is constantly eating and peeing and still needs to spend most of his time in the crate.  We already have plans to re-crate train him because he's peeing on the floor because he has to pee so much.


We'll know more after the test.   I'm hoping he'll be ok without surgery since he's responded so well to the medications so far.

A very doggie update

This weekend Aloysius goes off his Prednisone and Robaxxin.  All he has left is Tramadol.   This is the real test to see how he is doing.
He's been feeling better and not screaming in pain.  In some of his out of crate time yesterday (he is still spending 90% of his time in the crate) he jumped on the couch.  No scream, no look of pain.
I know that many dogs live with IVDD and don't always need surgery, we're hoping that will be the case for Aloysius. 

Since he's still on crate rest we needed to clean everything in his crate.  I decided to make him a new pillow for his bed out of some comfy flannel with robots on them.

Aloysius approves of this bed.

He's looking much better and doesn't look like he's in pain.  I'm hoping he continues to recover and that we don't need to have the surgery done.


EDIT:  He's still in pain so we've called the vet for a refill on his pain meds.

My poor sweet Aloysius

This is the face I see now.  He doesn't want to eat or drink.  He's drugged to the gills.  I sit with him and he puts his hand in my face.  This face is actually the least pain he's been in for quite a while.


I am not above begging right now.  It would break all our hearts to put him down and all agencies we are checking can't offer us any help.

Enough is enough...

Just came back from the vet.  They're pretty sure it's a ruptured disc.  He's in a great deal of pain and they've put him on steroids, pain killers and anti inflammatory meds. They've upped his dosage from last time and have one more level they can give him if this doesn't work.
We're referred to a Neurologist but can't afford the $1200 for testing.   The vet said that if we can afford the surgery there is really no point in even bothering with the testing.  He's in so much pain that if we can't afford the surgery and the meds don't work the only choice will be to put him down so he isn't in pain. 

It's hard to think that we could lose Aloysius.  I can't stand the thought of putting him down but he's in so much pain.  Sadly if the choice came between the surgery and the mortgage we need to keep a roof over Garrett's head.

I've had enough right now.  This downward spiral is maddening to all of us.