President Pam's phone rang at midnight with a call from LeadER. Dr. Johns, one of LeadER's Critical Care Vets had a 2-3 month old doxie puppy who was very, very sick with pneumonia and Mega Esophagus was the suspected underlying condition.
The family was willing to surrender. Could we help? If not, he would likely be euthanized.
A thousand things went through Pam's mind....Mega E is a lifetime commitment, we have already put out two fundraisers this week, and we are still covering after care costs for Champ and our hearts still hurt from losing Jade and Luna, and can we take on another high ticket special needs case with a VERY uncertain outcome?
And while Dr. Johns explained what they knew and Pam's head spun with worry of what the right thing to do was, his photo came through.
And we couldn't say no.
We are not "Dachshund only when we know we can cover the cost", we are not "Dachshund if we are not already up to our eyeballs in special needs after care" and we sure as hell are not "Dachshund only if we know they are going to make it". We are Dachshund Rescue.
Done Deal. Welcome to DRSF Kobe.
Kobe was placed on oxygen to get his breathing stabilized and get him through the night until Dr. Ghantous, Internal Medicine Specialist, could examine him.
Kobe's pneumonia was suspected to be Mega E (a condition where the esophagus does not work as it should to push food to the stomach causing dogs to aspirate and get pneumonia). That alone would be a challenging diagnosis but additional diagnostics were needed before that was the official diagnosis.
Little Kobe had a Barium Study done with Dr. Ghantous for him to understand how food moves through his less than 5 lb body, and the food moved through his esophagus with little problem, but then stopped right above his heart leading Dr. Ghantous to suspect that Kobe might have an aortic arch abnormality which is a whole other set of challenges.
To get a full diagnosis, Kobe needs at CT scan, which he can't have at the moment because he is suffering from pneumonia. Since Mega E is on the list of potential conditions, we can't risk feeding him and having him aspirate again, so little Kobe has also been fitted with a feeding tube to keep up his strength to fight the pneumonia and is on oxygen to help his little lungs too.
This is going to be hard, and complex, and expensive, and there are no guarantees, but we need a win and as we have always said, we would rather run the ship ashore doing the right thing than turn a little one who needs us away out of fear.
So here we are, back once again on bended knee, with a sweet little boy who made his way to our door. Our hearts have not healed from losing Jade and Luna but we have to keep going. Do you have it in you to try one more time to see if we can make a miracle?
