A big Chonky thank you from Puggy and family.

A big Chonky thank you from Puggy and family

We wanted to check in with all you lovely people and pooches who sent good vibes and donated to Puggy in his time of need. We have been planning to explain everything in detail that happened to our little man, and now he has finally been discharged and recovered brilliantly, we have the time and energy to do so. The donations were overwhelming, and we never expected anything close to the full amounts, let alone exceeding them! But in all honesty, the kindness and well wishes alone really helped get us through such a stressful time and we genuinely could not have done this without your kindness and support.

We try our very best to keep our social media accounts a positive, uplifting place, with silly content, but life really threw us a curve ball in this instance and instead of bombarding you all with negatives, we tried to maintain Puggy’s account while our world was falling apart. We don’t go too much into our personal lives on ‘the gram’ as we feel dogs accounts are all about escapism and silliness, and although we tried to keep you all updated as much as possible, it became very tricky with everything that was happening with Puggy and Pops being poorly, Covid, family illness etc… We spent our days waiting for phone calls from the vets, with anxiety levels at their highest and we were told to prepare for the worst. Things were so uncertain that it wouldn’t have been fair to bring our lovely followers into that darkness as we were simply not coping with it ourselves.

As you know, Puggy was poorly for the majority of 2021, with multiple issues with his ears, eventually leading to a MRI’s, bloodwork, a Spinal Tap, an ear flush under general anaesthetic and a Bilateral TECA BO surgery on both ears, with months of recovery in between and after.

We were let down by our insurers in this instance (Tesco) who failed to fulfil the claim because Puggy had an ear infection as a pup, and they decided that 6 years on, this was a pre-existing condition. Of course, we challenged this, but Tesco were so difficult to deal with, we eventually had to accept it and find the money to cover his treatments. After this ordeal, we switched insurers straight away, to a company we know and trust, who have insured our other dogs for years. However, any ear issues with Puggy would be deemed an existing condition as he only has his surgeries 7 months ago. We were told by the specialists that further ear troubles could come back, but it was highly unlikely as the surgery seemed to be a success and was followed up with months of antibiotics and steroids. Puggy became deaf, and we spent months teaching him sign language and adapting as a household to make sure he could communicate with us and vice versa, but generally he was back to his old self, and loving life.

Fast forward 7 months and out of the blue, Puggy was showing neurological signs that something wasn’t right. After a visit to our local vet, we found ourselves in another awful position, with Puggy being referred to specialists for another spinal tap, another MRI and more bloods and culture testing. The news was the worst we could have hoped for, the infection was back with a vengeance, now trapped inside his ears which have been sewed up after his previous surgeries. This time it was more complex as the surgeries on both ears could be done at the same time, but through his neck, as his ears had too much scar tissue for the specialist to navigate. The surgery went well, all infection was removed, and cultures sent to the lab as Puggy has resistance to most antibiotics. They also implanted sponges into his ear canals containing responsive antibiotics to attack the nastiness from the inside, in hope it never returns. At this point the bills were stacking up, and people were asking how they could help so we set up another go fund me, without any expectation as the generosity the year before was staggering. We don’t have this type of money sitting around in bank accounts, but we would have sold belongings and gone into debt if that’s what It took to save Puggy. Thankfully, with your help, we were able to focus on our lovely boy, without the added financial burden of the mounting vet bills.

A few days later, all was going to plan, and we collected Puggy and brought him home. After the 2-hour drive, he seemed a little stressed, which was to be expected as he was given sedatives and recovering from a pretty big surgery. However, things took a violent turn and within 10 minutes of arriving home Puggy was gasping for air and very distressed so we jumped back in the car and travelled straight back to the specialist. By the time we arrived Puggy was fading in and out of consciousness, very limp and unresponsive. He was panicked and afraid, struggling to get his breath, foaming at the mouth and very poorly.

The after-hours emergency team were waiting curb side for us and rushed puggy straight in to be stabilised. We waited in the car park of the vets for 6 hours, with occasional updates and cuppas bought out to us, but were told not to leave as Puggy was so critical. Puggy was, in the vets’ words ‘on a knifes edge’ and had to be heavily sedated, given oxygen and a concoction of other meds to try to get him to breath on his own. They stabilised him somewhat, sent us home, and told us they would call in the morning and not to worry unless they called in the night. Puggy was in intensive care with one-to-one care, so we signed the consent and resuscitation forms and begged them to do anything in their power to keep Puggy with us.

Then at 2.30am, the phone rang. The vet sounded very serious and explained the timeline of the evening to us. Puggy was experiencing a respiratory crisis and was unable to breath on his own. He then went into respiratory arrest, but the team battled to get him back. They managed this successfully, but Puggy was so poorly, he was put into an induced coma and onto a ventilator, in hope it would give his body a chance to rest, remove any stress and let the meds work to reduce any swelling.

After 3 days on a ventilator, Puggy was bought back round, yet still unable to breath unassisted. By this time, it was evident the issue was with his upper respiratory system and the vets decided the best thing to do would be to perform a tracheostomy on Puggy, so he would breathe through his throat, in hope that the swelling would decrease and eventually have this tube removed. We were told this may be permanent, and were discussing another surgery on his airways, but luckily this wasn’t needed, as three days later, the tracheostomy tube was successfully removed and Puggy was breathing and eating unassisted. He remained in intensive 24-hour care for a few more days and eventually was allowed home.

Getting him home was an incredible feeling, as we were so close to loosing our boy. But at only 7 years old we had to give him every chance possible. It’s not been easy as we had to adapt to caring for Puggy, trying to keep him calm so his breathing was stable and his tracheostomy site healed along with steroids making him crazy was a challenge, but we soon got the swing of things, and it was beautiful watching Puggy come back to us.

Puggy has been seeing the specialist soft tissue experts and Neurologists regularly to monitor his recovery, and two weeks ago, he was officially discharged! They are very happy with his recovery, and he is pain and med free, living his best life.

Puggy will require some ongoing therapies, such as K laser, hydrotherapy and potentially acupuncture, which he has already begun. These are to improve his strength and to keep him coordinated, to make him as healthy and strong as possible. Puggy’s health will indefinitely cost us a lot of money long term, but we will try anything to help him stay fit and well. It’s a very small price to pay in the grand scheme of things and we can afford these as the amounts are much less scary than the chunks of money, we were haemorrhaging during Puggy’s health dramas with his ears and throat.

We have wanted to add a Pup to our family for a long time and have talked about another Pug to be Puggy pal for years!

We have two rescue dogs, our girls Pops and Pom, so wanted to even things up with a bro for Puggy!

We finally found the perfect Pug from a wonderful breeder, with a healthy KC registered family tree! We sought advice from behaviourists and his vets, who all said it would be a positive for Puggy and explained that adding a pup would help Puggy stay youthful and improve his confidence now he’s deaf. Our delicious puppy, Pugyay was an early wedding gift from our parents, he joined us two weeks ago and it’s the best thing we ever did! Puggy is obsessed with him (as we all are!) and it’s given all the dogs, even grumpy, senior Pops a new lease of life. Puggy is far more active and curious with the pup around and we can already see their bond developing! The squad feels complete now and after such a dark time (with family death and illness also) A puppy has breathed some life and laughter into our family, and we intend to share as much as possible with our followers.

Moving forward, we pray this is the last time we have to go through this with Puggy (Or any other dog for that matter), as it’s been traumatising for us all, especially the big man himself. He needed round the clock care and countless visits for rechecks and we couldn’t have done this without your very generous donations.

Of course, both humans work full time as photographers and videographers, predominantly with the dogs as models for pet clients. Of course, we lost out on a chunk of Income, but most clients were very understanding of our situation and allowed us to post older content, delay jobs, or even show how products were helping Puggy’s recovery in a very real-life format. Luckily, we won’t lose any more income than we already have, and we are with the dogs 24/7 so we never have to leave them alone or in someone else’s care.

We removed our Go Fund Me profiles as people were still donating once we smashed our target, but for complete transparency we have included all the vet bills we could find from the last year inclusive of his original surgeries in 2021 and the issues in Jan/February. As you can see, Puggy’s care has been extensive, and we will always be so grateful for helping our family. When Puggy went into a respiratory crisis, we moved the target as the intensive care costs were spiralling. Go fund me take a percentage of the total raised and charges transaction fees with some credit suppliers globally, so the full amount we received in GoFundMe donations was £33363.88. Our vet bill total was £35299.29, which includes some of Puggy’s ongoing monthly anti-inflammatory jabs, some hydrotherapy, and laser therapy that we needed to pay for in advance. Of course, there are some receipts we have missed in the chaos of two dogs being very poorly, so the grand total is much higher and ongoing, not to mention petrol costs, loss of earnings and additional medications, but the scary estimates from the two specialists was covered by Puggy’s amazing followers and we are blown away!

Puggy is fighting fit and we will continue with recommended monthly anti-inflammatory jabs, as well as the therapies mentioned above so we can continue doing what we love and sharing Puggy’s wild life with you all. As of January, this year, Puggy is insured with the best cover available from an insurance company we know and trust, but we hope and pray that this never happens again.

A million thank you’s for everything, we owe you all and don’t ever be afraid to reach out if we can help in return.

Our happy, healthy Puggy sends you all a high five!

Thank you, x,