Pepper’s medications

Please help us with Pepper's treatment

We're 3 sisters raising money for the treatment of our Jack Russell estimated to be at least 14 years old(we do not know her exact age as she was once abandoned, without any info left behind by her previous owner).

Previously we've started a gogetfunding campaign for the same reason, which failed miserably. We've borrowed money from our parents' retirement savings from our mother behind our father's back previously, reason being he has high blood pressure, and my mother was afraid that the amount($6000+, almost half of the savings they've saved over a decade) would shock him and cause an attack, as they've worked painstakingly hard selling mixed vegetable rice daily to raise us and put aside the savings.

Pepper had been hospitalised at the vets' roughly a month ago and discharged around one week back. However, she still requires medications at home and regular check-ups at the vets'.

About her condition(do note that I'm not a very science person so I might translate what the vets said to a more layman term):

Pepper was first brought to the vets' as she was vomiting frequently at home despite having no appetite and not eating, and seemed weak in general. There, we discovered that she has kidney failure and was required to stay at the vets' for fluid therapy. She was also given medications for her vomiting which did not work for her, hence the vets changed it to a stronger one. She was still not eating, and had to be force-fed through a tube from her nose leading to her stomach. In addition, her heart valve is unable to close fully due to the fluid therapy she was receiving and she now has heart murmur. The vets tried to reverse the damage by limiting the fluid therapy she receives, yet there was no positive results. This condition caused her to have high blood pressure as well, and requires yet even more medications. At home, she is able to walk around, and spends most of her time sleeping. She is now able to walk to the bathroom to pee sometimes, while other times she doesn't make it and does her business on the kitchen floor, etc. Previously, she was so weak in her hind legs that she could mostly only turn in circles due to the lack of co-ordination between her front and hind legs. However, she seems to be walking more easily now as compared to just a week ago. She also used to require painkillers, but now do not need it anymore! We believe she will be able to regain more of her strength in the near future, with the medications, of course.

These are her current medications:

-Hepavite(liver detox)

-Lanthanum carbonate(reduces blood phosphate levels in renal failure)

-Omeprazole(treats symptoms caused by excess stomach acid)

-Pinobendan(management of heart failure)

-SAMe(supports cognitive function in senior pets)

As of now, we've paid for 1 week of her medications($600+, as the vets did not charge us for that particular consultation's fee out of goodwill) and we assume it will be around that cost or higher weekly, as most of her medications are to maintain her condition instead of to cure it. The vet assistant estimated the monthly bill to be around $3000. We will be only able to afford her medications through our savings for another 1 or 2 weeks depending on the bill, as all 3 of us are still students without a steady income, and 2 of us hold only a part-time job, while another sells handmade clay items during her free time while studying her final year in university. We do not wish to use our parents' retirement savings anymore as it has depleted quite a lot and we are afraid of our father finding out and having an attack potentially, as our parents really did work extremely hard through day and night for more than a decade to save up to that amount. However, my sisters and I will still work harder at our respective jobs to try to afford the medications, as a wag of her tail makes it all seem worthwhile. At this point, you might say we are torn between the health of our father and Pepper.

If we are unable to afford for Pepper financially, we are considering bringing her to the shelter and put her up for adoption as a last resort, as we have no other means to ensure that she has good health staying with us. However, we truly hope that we would be able to spend more time with Pepper and pat her more, give her many more ear rubs and generally just making more happy memories together before she goes naturally.

The donation amount is for Pepper's medications for one month, as we do not know when she will get better or go. Any excess donation will be welcome and will be used for Pepper's medication bills at a later time. In the case that there is excess donation and Pepper is not with us anymore, the full remaining amount will go to local pet shelters that is not government-funded. We will not keep the excess amount.

Seeing as our previous fundraising campaign failed miserably, we're not having too much hopes for this, but are definitely keeping our fingers crossed. If you are unable to aid us financially, do share this post as it might still help us. We thank every single person who helps us, in one way or another.