As many of you know, my house loves our pets more than ourselves, and they are more than just members of our family. We have 3 French bulldogs, 2 golden retrievers, and a cat in our house that keep our home very busy and full of never-ending love.
On Monday, March 30th, our sweet boy Anakin went into respiratory distress, could barely move, and ultimately stopped breathing. My mom had to rush him to the emergency vet in Tampa while trying to keep him alive the entire hour long drive. She made it to the vet in time to get him intubated to secure his airway. Upon further assessment, it was discovered that his epiglottis was severely inflamed causing his trachea to be completely blocked. They also found that his soft palate was too long causing even more airway blockage. He was rushed into surgery to reduce the size of his soft palate and insert a trach tube to help him breathe.
After his vitals remained stable overnight, they lightened his sedation and he was thankfully able to move and breathe on his own again. The vet said that if he passed a breathing trial he would be able to go home. After passing the breathing trial, he was able to come home on Tuesday afternoon. However, with a house full of other pets, he was not able to remain calm enough to regulate his breathing, which led to a panic attack that caused him to once again go into respiratory distress. My parents rushed him back to Tampa to get him back to the emergency vet. Anakin's trach tube was reinserted and he was kept overnight in a special oxygen chamber to make sure that he was getting enough oxygen and staying in a calming environment. He will stay there for the next few days.
As of today (April 1st), the vet informed us that if he improves enough to be discharged, he will have to remain in a calm environment for at least 14 days. However, with the chaos of so many other pets in our household, that's just not feasible. And staying at the vet for 2 weeks is not an option because he needs to heal in his home environment so that he can reacclimate to his normal life. This means that we need to find housing for our other pets while Anakin is at home healing. We have worked it out to have our other pets stay with family and friends for the 2 weeks after Anakin is discharged before we can slowly reintroduce them to him again.
This whole situation has been beyond stressful for my whole family, and I am just trying to relieve the stress of the financial aspect of Anakin's care for my parents. Credit cards have been maxed out, trips have been canceled, emergency loans have been applied for, but those don't even begin to cover the cost of his current and ongoing medical care. Normally, I am not one to openly ask for assistance, but I would like to help relieve any bit of stress from my family that I can. Anakin is only 2 years old, and has so many more adventures waiting for him in his life. Any amount would be greatly appreciated, and if all you can donate is your ongoing prayers for both Anakin and our family, I would be eternally grateful. Thank you so much in advance and God Bless! <3
