Penny was rescued from a high kill animal control facility. She was severely abused prior to coming here. She was pregnant and HIGH heartworm positive. She had 3 pups born on halloween of 2013 and she battled a pretty bad case of mastitis. She had to have a partial surgery to repair a softball size hole from the ruptured teet and while she was under she had to have an umbilical hernia repair as well. Once two of the puppies found homes, Penny started her slow kill heartworm treatment that spanned over 4 months. She is now heartworm negative. 
Penny has come a LONG way. it took her over a year to finally take a treat from my husband's hand. She still won't go potty for anyone else but me nor use my yard, but we are trying to work on that. But she has to be one of the happiest, most easy going and loving dogs i have ever seen in my life. She will actually smile and make faces at you when you go into her room and show her the leash to go for her walk. She actually dances around when you bring her in her food at mealtime. She loves to be around her people and give lots of kisses. Something that she wouldn't dare do when i first brought her home. She was so petrified that the AC officers had to force her into my crate and we had to carry the crate to my car. Then my husband had to pick her up and carry her into my house because she wouldn't walk inside. 
I first knew something was wrong with Penny about 3 months ago. She started getting these nausea spells. I would give her a tums and it would go away. About 3 weeks ago, she had gotten one about 8 pm on a Sunday night and no matter what i did, nothing would help her. I even stopped her regular dog food and started giving her some chicken and rice. So i called the vet and i was able to take her Wednesday (it was the first opening the vet had)  to be examined. They kept her 2 nights and said they couldn't find anything wrong-even after doing some bloodwork-but sent her home with an antibiotic to be on the safe side. So i picked her up Friday morning and brought her home. Well by Sunday evening it was all happening again. Only this time, i noticed her starting to swell a little bit. I  tried pepcid, a while later i gave pepto, i tried a tums a while later-NOTHING worked. John even video'd her behavior so we would have something to show the vet on what she was doing-i even attached it to the fundraiser so folks could see. So once AGAIN, i called the vet first thing Monday morning and they said there was nothing else they could do since they weren't equipped and suggested i take her to Texas A&M for some scopes. Well, i called A&M and they gave me a "guesstimate" on what those scopes would cost and it was close to $3,000.00. 
After much consideration, I decided to take her to a highly recommended vet (Dr. Spence here in Tyler) in town for a second opinion. The only problem i was running into was the money to take her.After a friend had posted that i needed some help, i received 2 donations in order to take her to this new vet. He did a COMPLETE  blood series which included all of her organ functions. He found that her cholesterol was VERY high causing her lipids to separate in her blood. Also, her calcium and her potassium levels were EXTREMELY high. He gave her some medication for me to give her 2x a day at mealtime and changed her food to Science Diet Digestive Health for sensitive stomachs. He also had me buy the equivalent to Maalox Plus (they dont make maalox plus anymore) to give her as directed on the bottle after the pills were gone (in case she had any palyups in her stomach) and said that if this didn't work, she WOULD need a scope to see what exactly the problem was, however, there was a vet in town that was equipped to do scopes and it WAS much cheaper than A&M.

Our issue now is getting the money together to pay for the scope. I had missed MANY unpaid days off from work over a span of 8 months to care for my terminally ill mom (who passed away January 29,2015) and here in the last month my job has decided to regulate my hours. Instead of working full time, they seem to be working me as part time. In the last 2 weeks (from 6/22-7/3) they have given me 6 days off!! i am not able to survive any longer like this. yes, i have been putting in applications at other places-not only for full time work, but i'm even willing to stay at this job and work on my off days/hours or weekends. Not to mention, i am at risk of losing my house. I was served foreclosure papers and i had to file bankruptcy this past Monday (7/6/15) to keep from losing my home because we would have NOWHERE to go. Penny is not the only animal we have. We have 5 other rescue dogs and 3 rescue cats. My husband works as well full time, but once you get so far behind and into a financial hole, it's REALLY hard to get back out. especially when you have animals and children that depend on you. 

Our animals and children come FIRST! We do without so they can have. The animals have ALWAYS been provided with vet care any/every time they have needed it-i can provide vet reference and a huge stack of bills if needed. Anytime something has been suggested as far as the animals go, we have done it-regardless of the cost. Unfortunately, most of the animals we have taken in are ones that aren't able to be placed in other homes. Ones that required either specialized care (allergies, some aggression issues with strangers, But the simple fact is-right now, we NEED help. Help to get Penny the care she needs. She is no longer the happy girl she has been this past year. She no longer wants to go for her walks, she no longer dances when i bring her the food bowl, she is constantly having these nausea spells and she IS miserable. It breaks my heart knowing there is nothing i can do to help her:( i have spent MANY nights sitting beside her and just crying. 
I am more than willing to provide the Vets name who will do the scope once Dr. Spence refers Penny there. If they allow folks to call in donations, that would be fine to-and i will update all that information once i know. Or, you can donate directly to my paypal which is: unclebubba1965@aol.com.  Please, if anyone can help, any amount is never too small. it all adds up. and it would be greatly appreciated from the bottom of my heart. i certainly wouldn't be asking if this wasn't absolutely necessary. Thank you in advance!!!