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Help us Help Arlo
Many of you may have seen Arlo.
He was found dumped on the south side of Lake Minnewaska. It took a few days to gain his trust, and he was able to be picked up by a few of our amazing community members. It became quickly evident that he was not doing well.
We have him at Pope County Humane Society, and we are getting him into the emergency Vet today (11/17). On top of severe malnutrition, he struggles with his back legs. We are unsure if this is from the malnutrition, or from some other trauma or spinal injury. We will have more answers once we get him checked out.
Update1 1/17 6:45 pm: We don’t have the best update at this time.
Unfortunately, Arlo is showing signs of some sort of brain trauma that they are unable to diagnose or see at the emergency vet.
The two options we were presented with:
-transfer him to the cities where he can be hospitalized and more tests/scans can be done.
-euthanasia
His labs look pretty good and no obvious causes based on their imaging. But he's not able to walk without support, doesn't pull his tongue back in when they pull it out, his pupil react to light.
We are choosing at this time to transfer him to the cities. We are going to exhaust all of our options before we give up on him. Thank you to everyone who has followed his story and showed us support.
The fact that he had to spend days, hungry and in pain, in the cold is heartbreaking. Luckily he was found by a family who was persistent on getting him help. We will do everything we can to get him the help he needs, and we just hope we aren’t too late. There are many safe ways to get animals rehomed, our shelter being one of them. While we don't know what individuals are going through and we want to believe that people mean well, we also want people to know there are other resources and we are here to help.
Just to get into the emergency vet, it is $225. We anticipate the cost being much higher once they determine what treatment is needed. Please help us give this very good boy the treatment he needs. Any little bit helps. Our goals is to raise $2,000 to help cover the medical bills and care Arlo needs.
Cost updates:
-Exam: $200
-X-rays: $800
-Blood work: $400
-Pending transfer to animal hospital in the cities: At this time, the animal hospital is giving us an $8,000 to figure out what's going on.
Thank you to everyone who has shown interest in the wellbeing and care for Arlo. It takes a loving community to help animals in need.
Update 11/18 8AM:
Arlo update
He made it through the night!
He is doing better neurologically than he was last night, but is showing more physical symptoms (stiff front limbs, back legs still causing him some unknown discomfort).
The vet has been keeping us updated on their list of potential causes, and thankfully trauma has moved down to the bottom of the list.Right now the most likely candidates are
⁃ Botulism
⁃ Tetanus
⁃ Rabies
We will hopefully know more after he’s seen by the neurology department this morning.
We want to maintain transparency with the community, especially since so many of you have pitched in for his medical care.
Things aren’t looking good for Arlo, and we might have to make some really tough calls soon. While we will always fight to give animals the best lives, and give them every opportunity we can to thrive. Sometimes we have to make heartbreaking decisions based on an animals prognosis and likelihood of a pain and struggle free life. And while it is not certain yet if that is a decision we will have to make for Arlo, we want to be open with everyone that it is a possibility.
But until things are more clear, we will keep fighting for Arlo.
Update 11/18 Noon:
It is with a heavy heart that we have to make this announcement:
At the recommendation of the vet, we have had to make the tough decision to euthanize Arlo. With more and more things being ruled out, rabies was becoming a more likely diagnosis.
Even if this turns out not to be his diagnosis, his suffering and long term prognosis was very poor. We did as much as we could for him, and unfortunately it was not enough in this case.
We also had to put the safety of staff, and the safety of the public as our top priority. Once a Vet makes a possible determination of rabies, we have an obligation to get an answer so we can make sure there was no exposure.
At this time, he does not have a Rabies diagnosis, and they will only be able to confirm after testing. The testing only happens after euthanasia. There is no test they can do now to confirm.
We will keep open transparency going forward. We are hoping for a negative Rabies result, and for the health and safety of the community. Even if he is negative, we know we gave him every possible chance, and we only chose to end his suffering at the recommendation of the best qualified Vets in the state.
We thank you for the support of the community, and we will continue to do what we do in hopes of providing support and a safe place for animals in our community.
These kinds of situations sit heavy with our staff and volunteers, so please keep them in your thoughts today.
Verified
Organized by Pope County Humane Society Inc
501(c)(3) Public Charity · EIN 41-1575524
[email protected]
