Coco's condition, accepting donation$ for her surgery!

So this all started on July 1 when I went to shoot an interview with someone in San Bernardino. He said he had a backyard/kennel area for dogs so I brought Coco with me. It was really hot that day. The yard fence had an opening where Coco could've slipped out, so I tied her up in a corner of shade and left a bowl of water there. I ended up interviewing/talking with the guy for over 2 hours. When I came back out, the shade had completely moved, but the guy's family had just untied her and were watering her down. She definitely was heat exhausted. It was as we left that she started acting weird. She screamed when we touched her in certain areas (I thought we just pulled her leg too hard when we were drying her up). She was also REALLY tired and disinterested in anything, including food she normally gets really excited about. I still just thought she was burned out from being in the sun for the past few hours.

But her exhaustion and screaming (when you touched her certain places) continued, so on Monday 4th of July, I took her to the emergency hospital for an X-ray, which came back with nothing out of the ordinary.

The following days, her wounds developed mostly in the areas where she was reacting to pain. It started as a pinch of a hole where it seemed like a little bit of hair fell off. Then pus was coming out of this area over the week. So I took her to the vet down the street since it was close and they accept CareCredit (a medical care credit card service). They shaved the area with the pus and after looking at the skin, the vet said it was most likely a really bad sunburn. They ran a fecal test which produced nothing out of the ordinary as well. So the vet put her on antibiotics and gave me some cream. At this point, the wounds looked like dark, thick, hardened skin (basically dead skin) which slowly was peeling off and underneath was raw tissue that was not closed or healed yet. After 2 more visits where the wounds were clearly getting worse, the vet refers me back to a surgeon (back at the emergency hospital).



The surgeon there says he's never seen a sunburn like that. He said it could also be some sort of bite infection or something toxic or really hot got poured or pressed against her. He recommended a $3000 surgery to pull nearby skin to close up the main wound. I said no since that was way outta my budget, so he just gave me more antibiotics. This was a good decision as well since that surgery would've only treated the symptom, not the problem. And the problem was indeed growing. In addition to the main wound where dead skin was peeling off, more spots are popping up all over her body. They are starting the same way: small pieces of hair falling off, skin hardening, falling off, raw bloody, pus tissue underneath.



So my friend recommends another clinic to me. I go there and their fees are way cheaper, which was the first positive sign. The vet is also baffled, but he suggests a biopsy to take skin samples from the various degrees of wounds. He can't think of any other way to find out what the disease is. I already blew nearly $1000 at the first two hospitals, both of which turned out to be mostly useless. I'm hoping my intuitions are right about this third place and that their surgery will at least tell me what's wrong with Coco so we can figure out a plan from there. The biopsy will cost nearly $700.

I've started an account on Chipin to raise funds to help pay for it. I think you need a PayPal acct, so if you don't have one but would like to donate, let me know and we'll work something out. Otherwise, go to this page and click the link on the right column. Any amount will be greatly appreciated!!!! Thank you!!!