Medical costs over 5.000€
What happened to Margot?
In late 2022 she started having some issues when eating and went into her third procedure to clean her teeth – when it was necessary to remove 5 of them. She kept having some vomiting episodes, and it was assumed as a delicate stomach, since she was still happy and active.
Until things escalated…
| 26.03 – 18.04 | Got sick and went to 2 rounds of antibiotics |
| 19.04 – 24.04 | ICU – Lifethreatening – Margot developed other symptoms and the status severely worsened |
| 25.04 – 01.05 | Started with Steroids and her general state progressed, kept daily infusions. She was too weak to stand up, and later on she still couldn’t stretch. |
| 06.05 – 08.05 | Margot improved her behaviour but the blood samples were even worse than 3 weeks before. We decided to look for a second opinion. The clinic and they wouldn’t release the tests if we didn’t pay in full, we went therefore in debt for ~5,3K paid in less than a month. |
| 09.05 – 31.05 | Margot went from 7,3kg to 4,4kg – the new doc had a detailed check and instructed how to feed her on the following weeks. she started gaining weight again. |
| 01.06 – 12.06 | Steroids were decreased until the point we stopped – her liver values were still very bad, being treated in the moment throught her diet. She slowly started climbing up stairs by herself. |
| 13.06 – today | Margot restarted piruetas and looks amazing. |
- After losing 30% of her body weight, Margot is taking long walks with mom and recovering the muscles she hadn’t anymore due to the meds. She is happy to be home, loves to eat and to take care of the building.
How can you help?
- Donations through Paypal
- IBAN: DE51100400480454556200 | Cintia Vinhal de Almeida
- Brasil: por PIX no CPF | 723668181-49
In less then a month her health collapsed and we’re now running against time to save her keep her treatment running :)
The vet bills are summed over 5.000€ – We gathered over 1.300€ with your help! Thank you so much!
Who is Margot? (pronounciation french Margaux)
Margot is a mini Schnauzer born in 2012 in Brasilia – Brazil. She is one of the 5 Al Pacino and Brigitte Bardot’s puppies – a cute pack of 2 white and 3 black baby dogs.
For some reason mommy Brigitte got sick and stopped breastfeeding, and this made Margot come to live with us on a unusual early age. The result is – she never really gave any signs of missing mommy, never cried in the night and never learnt how to howl as her siblings did.
Long story short, we moved away to Germany, and after trying 3 times without success Margot finally made it to Berlin. Since December 2017 she’s been a charming, dear, elegant, and beloved pup taking care of Berlin-Schöneberg’s surroundings.
she got clearly sick. On 26.03.2023 I took her to an emergency at her regular vet. She had a fever. She started taking antibiotics, and from that first shot with meds to today she has been to 4 rounds of different antibiotics, 6 vets (thank God 4 are on the same team) 3x blood samples, 2x ultrassounds, stopped walking twice, got better a couple of times, several check appoinments but ended up being taken into Intensive care on 19.04.2023.
And what is going on?
As far as we know she had a severe Pancreatitis that was refusing to get better and by the time she started making improvement her own body started attacking itself. For the whole scenario the docs are now treating the self immune desease and the Pancreatitis.
She’s not considered in lifethreatening situation since 27.04.2023, when she started coming home by the end of the day, nearly lost 2 kg and still moves slowly and slightly unbalanced. We got a brave little one who is giving all signs of a great recover and lots of tail waving moments.
Medical costs are at this point over 5.000€ way more than we could afford.
How can I help?
- Donate ANY amount through Paypal or the IBAN indicated above.
- Send us prayers and healing vibes.
- Share with your community
Since there are more contacts (and love waves) coming from Brazil, the overall bills will be updated on her Instagram account @margot_the_puppy and on @civinhal (this one mostly em Português)
More to come – Lotto based prizes <3
I am a former marketing professional unfortunately struggling with Long Covid since 2,5years. I’ve been sharing Margot’s story, because neither of us [me, my ex-hub or my friends] have this kind of money. I’ve heard in different places and scenarios we should put her down, but honestly, I didn’t consider when the bills were not so grotesque because we could manage it somehow and now I would not do this to my baby who is asking for food, barking at the neighbors, offering me her protective pose and happy to take a walk. Feel free to PM me. Sending love back!
How come you got this huge bill?
Why not to put her down? They ask me. So here an honest piece of context:
I am a former marketing professional and all the time I had during the last 2,5 weeks I've been trying to share Margot's story, because neither of us [me, my ex-hub or my friends] has this kind of money. I've heard in different places and scenarios we should put her down, but honestly, I didn't consider when the bills were not so grotesque because we could manage it somehow and now I would not do this to my baby who is asking for food, barking at the neighbors, offering me her protective pose and happy to take a walk.
Feel free to PM me. Sending love back!
I would really like to try:
- Meeting with my insurance which gets paid regularly since 2018 and didn't cover anything (In 2018 we thought it was Op and emergency and actually they just cover emergency Op - Margot didn't get any)
- To meet the finance department/owner of the vet clinic to see if I can get any discount and/or payment plan. The workers there say they 'don't do it anymore'.
- Help from anyone to put up some flyers with her story and link to fundraising and sharing the link with the same to their communities
- International Teams or Business that would like to give us any sort of support - I am creating a Consulting Business (Instagram @inclusilab still on the research phase, but can provide short blick) and I could provide services as a compensation
- Long hugs from people who like them - because at this point I am tired and will probably cry on your shoulder
Bare with my ADHD for the context, I will try my best to bring the whole scenario here:
I was on semi-stationary treatment (due to my own illness) when my fur daughter started to get sick. Between March and April, I've been with her to 3 different clinics and, although the last had all the necessary equipment to find her diagnosis and treatment, there was a lot of weirdness that we're - literally - paying for {because capital tops life and this is what we have now}.
Margot was brought to the vet on 3 occasions where she struggled to be alive and many others trying to avoid it.
1. After 6 days taking antibiotics due to a fever, I went to a second vet (her regular was on vacation) not reacting, not walking. The pup instantly got better after some infusion and walked proudly outside. This lady was right on point suspecting pancreatitis, however, she didn't have the means for an image examination... The bad thing here was she said "if she's getting better it's all good, keep the antibiotics until they finish". Margot got happy and active a couple of days later, but you all know, dogs are people pleasers...
2. On the following weekend, Margolola started to have pain and didn't want to go out or eat... We took her extremely weak to a big clinic that offered an X-Ray (since it was the Easter holiday there were no ultrasound professionals available). The vet said she had 1- trauma on her back and an injured knee that might cause extreme pain 2- lung inflammation 3- liver was weird, but needed to be checked on the ultrasound. (don't bother to hold this info, it vanishes). The doc asked us to come back in one week for the ultrasound and a leg specialist. [At this point I am worried that we spend over 1000€]
3. Days went by with more antibiotics till we had the Ultrasound appointment. We left there with nothing but severe pancreatitis case. The next day they wanted to see her and I get there saying she isn't well: we didn't sleep, she was clearly in pain and panting the whole time plus her little heart was racing absurdly in a way I was afraid of a heart attack. They check for fever, get her more painkillers and send her home. The next day (Sunday!) we bring her again with no progress and they repeat the fever check, give her meds send her home. On that SAME day, she got even worse with the panting and got super active - I know my dog, she was desperate and guess she couldn't stay still because her heart was way too fast. It was 23:00 when the doc checked if she had a fever and stated she was okay and that Pancreatitis takes a long time to heal, told us to 'relax'. I literally said: So if this is not her dying what should I worry about? and he said: if she stops being up and eating. (for this I still cry because I feel we went home to relax and wait for her to die) [Fri to Sun cost us over 1000€ again]
4. on Monday she'd have another check, but since the little one had just started to chill I called to cancel the appointment and explained I didn't want to stress her out and come there to leave another +100€ for checking her temperature. There was already an appointment on Wed afternoon. On Wednesday morning she wouldn't lift her head anymore and was taken into Stationary treatment with a minimum chance to survive. We took another Ultrasound and the pancreatitis in 5 days turned into a general infection with tons of liquid in her belly. We decide to take decisions on a daily basis. [Since this day we stopped being charged on a daily basis and things escalated badly]
5. I saw improvement in the first hours - but they were very clear to say it was still an extremely hard case. The doctor here, on a Thursday 24 hours after taking her to intensive care, mentioned they found an abscess in one of her paws... [There was another chapter beginning....] On Friday she had 2 abscesses, on Saturday she had them in all the legs. The doctor in charge that weekend said Margot didn't want to move when the day started and she called to explain the case and request to change the therapy to a self-immune disease - so she could make it to the results of blood tests. [Here my ex-husband is visiting family abroad - and I call him that if she's stable or worse we put her down the next day. I, him, and my 8yo daughter spent the day crying our hearts out].
6. In 24 hours we could see the doc actually nailed it and Margot was happy, tail and ears up, although the abscesses were still there. On the fourth day of the new therapy, they sent her to sleep at home - because we had amazing progress. On that day they told me we had a 2700€ open amount and I, completely shocked, paid the full limit of my credit card there (1500€).