Helping Animals Live Tomorrow: Emergency Medical Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

The grant money was used to diagnosis Teddy's condition. It paid for diagnostic testing and blood work, We were also able to purchase medicine and enzymes for him.

Teddy was very sick with chronic diarrhea and weight loss. Using the grant money, we were able to get an accurate diagnosis and the correct medicine.

How many pets did this grant help?

Just one: Teddy

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

We pulled Teddy from a high[-intake] county shelter over the Fourth of July. He came to us with severe diarrhea. In the two weeks he was in the shelter, he had lost 16 lbs., and once in our care, he continued to drop weight at an alarming rate. We took him to the vet and test results stated no giardia or intestinal parasites. Teddy continued to have chronic diarrhea and weight loss.

We researched symptoms and became highly suspicious that teddy could have exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI). The grant money funded extensive blood work, x-rays and testing, which validated that Teddy’s levels showed chronic EPI. His pancreas was not allowing him to absorb the nutrients from the food he was eating, causing alarming weight loss.

Sadly, EPI is a lifelong condition that will always need to be controlled by taking enzymes. The cost of the enzymes is $150 every 2-3 weeks. Teddy has not been adopted. We are thankful for your grant, which allowed us to diagnosis Teddy correctly and get the proper medicine to help his condition.