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URGENT NEED!

PHANTOM – Hemolytic Anemia - Heartworm Positive -
Vet Bill

8 - 11 - 11 I got a email from my Terrebone Louisiana Animal Shelter ACO Valerie stating, QUOTE: We have another purebred Boston at our shelter. He is an abandoned dog case. His hold period ends on Aug. 18th if no owner comes forward by then. Please let me know if you can help him. END OF QUOTE.

8 - 18 - 11 My volunteer Fred picked this boy up at the shelter for me on the 18th. Linda his wife sent this message as soon as they got him to their home where they were overnighting him until the next leg of the transport. QUOTE: I gave him a bath, cleaned his ears and trimmed his very long toe nails. He never made a move to get away. My impression of him is that his spirit has been broken. Dejected if I had to describe him in one word. He is sweet though and never showed his teeth even once. Someone is going to get a very sweet dog. I was getting ready to give you the bad news. His urine is as dark as black Louisiana coffee. In fact it looks bloody and dark brown. End of QUOTE.

Based on past experience with blood in the urine, I thought it might be a urinary tract infection so after asking Dr. Cindy the correct dosage, Linda started him on Cefa 250 to be given twice a day until we could complete the transport and get him in to the vet.

8 - 20 - 11 One of the many transporters that helped get this boy from South Louisiana up to me near Oklahoma Jim stated, QUOTE: Gang, He's a little "terre-bony" and skinny, but what a darling! According to the shelter paperwork he's 3 years old. He has the half white/half black face like the Phantom of the Opera, but is very mellow. He has dandruff and a little bit of hairloss on his rump - might be from a scuffle from the looks of it. Micah said she didn't think he was feeling well, and Barbara had said he was coughing, but he seemed just fine to me, though quite subdued. He just curled up in the booster seat and snoozed most of the way to my meet with Donna. I believe it is thought he might have a UTI? Couldn't tell. Handed him off to Donna and then was right back home. END OF QUOTE

8 - 22 - 11 Wanda's first report on Phantom -Well guys, the news is not good. This poor Louisiana boy I got this weekend is extremely sick. He does NOT have a UTI like we originally thought and had started him on meds for. Phantom will require a lot of time and attention from me. At this time, I don’t need to take on any more dogs until I see if he is gonna get over the hump and survive, so no incoming dogs until further notice.

He is heartworm positive, anemic, dehydrated, Peeing very red bloody looking pees, lethargic etc…. Dr. Cindy says that there are no red blood cells in the urine so she is ruling out kidney and bladder issues at this time. The hemoglobin is breaking down into his pee as his blood is being filtered through the kidneys into the bladder. Hemolytic Anemia where the blood is being broken down like this is life threatening. There are many things that can cause this. It can be caused by many things such as toxic poisoning by Tylenol, onions and zinc etc…, or parasites or bacteria, mechanical damage from damaged blood vessels or a immune system problem. Since he was an abandoned dog we have no idea if he could have gotten into anything that would have poisoned him.

We have taken blood and urine specimens and are sending stuff off to the lab. I will let you know as soon as we get the results back. It will probably be next week as it usually takes 5 to 7 days to get results back from the lab. We are treating him like he is contagious until we figure out what is going on with our boy. So he is in quarantine so none of the other dogs here will be affected if it is something contagious. I have bleached his crate and the bedding where he was laying as he didn’t move once he got here on Saturday.

He got a huge shot of antibiotic today and we have changed him from the Cefa we started him on Thursday when Fred picked him up at the shelter for transport to doxycycline. He is to get watered wet dog food and nutrical as well as all the water he can be coaxed to drink. If the antibiotics are going to help him we will know within several days.

This is me thinking, (not Dr. Cindy talking) that due to the fact that he has a blood issue, since I have a boxer (Teddy), I can take Teddy up to the vet and we can do a transfusion if she thinks it is needed. Boxers are good blood donors cause they are very stoic about pain. Bruce donated blood in Tennessee for my vet there once.

So please everyone, I would appreciate your prayers for our boy, Phantom. IF we can save him from his blood breaking down on him, Phantom is going to have a long road to recovery due to all the other things going on with him. Also, if you can find it in your heart to send a donation for his vet bill that would be much appreciated as well. He is a beautiful dog and I sure hope we can save him. Thank you so much for your support. Please feel free to cross post to our facebook page and wherever else you would like to. Maybe we can get some donations for his care. HUGS< Wanda

If you would like to contribute to Phantom's care and vet bill, please feel free to use paypal for your payment or If you want to send a donation directly to our vet send to:

Grand Avenue Animal Clinic
822 N. Grand Avenue
GAINESVILLE, TX 76240

Please Make a note it is for ABTR's Phantom!

Thank you so much. IF you want to send a check directly to me rather than using paypal you can mail to:

ABTR
P.O. Box 525
Sanger TX 76266

Thank you again for your prayers for this poor sweet boy and for your support. HUGS Wanda

Please folks, we need funds to pay his bill and the bill of several other dogs that have run up big bills and didn't make it. Please donate. Thank you.

As always, ABTR appreciates your continued support of our rescue efforts. Without your Generosity and support, we could not have helped as many dogs as we have over the years. :) Thank you so very much. Wanda

We at American Boston Terrier Rescue have no ongoing sponsors, Subsidies, grants or other steady supporter paying for the vetting care of the rescue dogs. All vet bills, dog food and anything else the dogs need are paid for from donations, adoption donations and my own pocketbook. Any Donations are always appreciated.

ABTR is very grateful for the generous show of support for this little baby boy. Your prayers are so appreciated as well as the donations for her vet care. All donations raised in excess of Phantom's expenses will be used for the care of the many other dogs in our rescue program like the older dogs and special needs dogs who will probably never be adopted, but still need our love, vet care, dog food and Prayers. Thank you again for your donations and support.

UPDATE: 8/29/11 Sorry, I have been a bit depressed and thought I had posted this to the webpage, but I guess I just sent emails out to everyone and posted it to the board. First off, we got the results back on the tests we sent off to check for Leptospirosis and several other things it could have been. Everything was NEGATIVE! So he wasn’t contagious, Thank God. But we still have no idea why he was hemolyzing his blood.

Next, He hadn’t changed any in his actions, still lethargic etc all weekend, not looking any worse and not looking any better. Still chowing down on his dins and hotdogs with meds in them. I was planning on taking him in tomorrow so that we could run some more tests on him after we got the results from the last batch. When I got home tonight, Phantom had passed away sometime during the day. I already have a big vet bill so am not taking him in for a necropsy. Gareth has gone to bury him at the bottom of the hill with my old farts and dogs that didn’t make it to a new home due to health issues like the Phantom.

I had really hoped that with the meds we were giving him the vitamin K and the doxy that he would perk up, but we weren’t that lucky. Poor sweet boy, but at least he knew we cared about him and he didn’t die in the shelter or out wandering around abandoned and unwanted. He was on a bed in the morning room here with the new air conditioner on so he was comfortable at least.

So that is another one that we lost after running up a good sized vet bill. I know from past experience that once a dog has passed no one usually donates to his bill. We still have to pay it even though we didn’t save him. We would appreciate ANY donations you would like to send for his vet care.

Sometimes, I really get discouraged when I lose these babies that we tried our best to save. All I can ask is that folks find it in their hearts to pray for our Phantom that he is healthy and happy where he is now. Thank you for your support and prayers for our Phantom boy.

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