Your donation will help provide Frank with a life saving surgery

🏥 Frank needs everyone’s help! 🏥
On 3/25/2020 we pulled Frank (formerly Warren) from Chicago Animal Care and Control. Frank had a cough which a lot of dogs do coming out of the shelter, so he was seen by one of our vets and was treated for an upper respiratory infection with antibiotics and cough meds. Seemed pretty standard. But this morning we received a call from his foster mom saying he seemed to be in distress...he was lethargic...shaking and coughing a ton. Thinking the antibiotics weren’t working Frank went back to the vet. After blood-work, X-rays and an ultrasound, we were shocked to find out that it was Franks's heart 💔 They told us his heart didn’t look quite right: he has a murmur, it was beating irregularly, and on top of all of that he has what looked like a mass/abscess in the area of the heart. The Dr. didn’t feel this could wait a week or two for him to see the cardiologist, she said he needed to be seen right away. With that being said, Frank will be seeing a cardiologist tomorrow at 3 pm. We were also told if Frank's condition worsens before then to take him immediately to the emergency department. His condition is that serious right now 😢

We are scared to death, Frank is only 2!!! We saved Frank once this week and now we need your help to save Frank again. We don’t know what is to come for Frank, but we do know he will get unprecedented care and we desperately need your financial help.

4/2/2020 Update - We don’t want to say it wasn’t the news we were hoping for because we really didn't know what to expect. Frank saw the cardiologist yesterday and he was diagnosed with Severe Pulmonary Stenosis. Basically this is an obstruction in the valve on the right side of the heart, the affected valve is the one that takes the blood to the lungs and the blood isn’t flowing as it should be. This is genetic so Frank was born this way. His lethargy and shortness of breath are side effects of this. So where do we go from here? We were given 2 options - Option 1 is to do nothing except start him on heart meds (beta-blockers that help things flow and slow down the damage to the heart), this option gives Frank maybe a year or two of life if we are lucky. And he will have to be on exercise restriction and monitored very carefully because he is at risk for sudden death. Option 2 is to put him on the beta-blockers and for him to be seen at the University of Marion for a procedure called Balloon Valvuloplasty. This is where they go in through an artery and insert a balloon into the valve and open it up manually, the cost of this procedure is about $5500, this will give Frank much better quality of life and the possibility of many more years. Frank is amazing and he is so worth this procedure!

4/15/2020 Update - Frank update! It has been a few weeks since Frank had his episode and seen the cardiologist. He has been put on beta blockers and they seem to be doing their job. Frank doesn’t seem to be as lethargic and isn’t panting as much, we are very excited about this! We know that the meds are just a band-aid until he can have his surgery but any relief he can get we will take! The cardiologist in Madison was worried about the possibility of Frank having pneumonia so he has also been on strong antibiotics for treatment. This coming Monday Frank will go back to our primary vet for chest X-rays, and then those will be sent to the University of Madison to be reviewed and we will be advised from there what the plan is for Frank. We know he needs surgery but we just don’t know when it will be, they need Frank as healthy as possible before surgery. Thank you all for all your love, support and donations. It means a new lease on life for Frank!

We are just trying to process this right now as I’m sure all you dog lovers out there will be too. We find ourselves asking once again how can this be happening to such an amazing guy, and how can we not help Frank?! There aren’t 2 options for us, there is only one...that is to help Frank. For us to help Frank we need your donation. We need to raise the money to save Franks life. Can you please help Frank?

6/9/2020 Update - Frank's Balloon Valvuloplasty was a success! Now he needs to be on limited activity, only short walks are allowed. And on August 20th he goes back to Madison for an echocardiogram, cardio recheck, and his neuter. We are so thrilled that he is on his way to a normal healthy life.

7/10/2020 Update - “We were on our morning walk, hitting a dead end on the street - about to turn the corner and I see a dog in its yard. I notice the front gate open so we turn around. As we turn around I’m thinking “please stay in your yard”. I turn around to see if the dog was in the yard and sure enough she was right behind us.