For vets, some visits are routine, and some are not. Some are matters of life and death where a prescription can fix the problem and others go high stakes instantaneously where the only thing that can save a life is a phone call.  

Dr. Riff at PAWS went to her next scheduled appointment and was met with the request to euthanize a 45 lb French Bulldog for having very low grade IVDD.  Not 100% down IVDD, not hardly standing IVDD, but just a little wobbly IVDD.

For reasons that are not ours to judge, the family declined crate rest and other medical treatments, and asked for her to be euthanized.  Right then, right on that table. 

Veterinarians do not spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on medical degrees to end lives, they go into a thankless industry out of love of animals and to save lives.

Dr. Riff did not want to take Skylar’s life, so she made the one phone call she hoped would help.

She called President Pam. 

Do we need a French Bulldog?  We do not

Do we need a 45 lb French Bulldog?  We do not

Do we need another IVDD case?  We sure as heck do not as we did not raise enough to cover the last one we did.

But how do we say no when we know that our no will end a life? 

So we didn’t.  We crossed our fingers and told the universe the same thing we always do - we would rather run the ship ashore doing the right thing than let a dog who had been brought to our door down.

Skylar’s family was open to surrendering and so she became a DRSF French Bulldog and will make her way to Southeast Veterinary Neurology.  We are back on the hook for another case of IVDD, our 3rd in the span of a month for dogs who had been brought to be euthanized for that very condition.

We can only say yes if we can cover each dog as we go.  IVDD is a big lift no matter how you cut it, but as always, donations do not need to be big to be impactful.  If everyone who sees Skylar’s story gives even a few dollars, we can have her covered in no time and be there for whoever is out there and will need us next.