Pepe

About the Campaign

He cannot swallow properly,

uses a special chair to eat.

Pepe has a correctable birth defect, with surgery he can have a normal life. Without it, he will probably die within a month. He’s only survived this long because of the dedicated care he gets from Victoria.

What a story about how they came together:

In May, Victoria found a mother and six puppies dumped at the end of her property in a rural area inland of Pismo Beach, California. She took them in, though one puppy died almost immediately. Reviewing a security camera, she saw that it was her neighbor who dumped the dogs.

Victoria confronted him, a reclusive and abusive older man, and he told her he dumped them because they were all sick and worthless. He refused to take any responsibility, and told Victoria off. She contacted the county sheriff, but they were not interested in the case. She was told they had more serious things to investigate and that she should just take the animals to the pound.

Instead Victoria took care of them. And she got them all adopted! The mother went to her ex’s, and the rest found homes, except she kept Pepe because he was so skinny and sick. She has spent over $3000 on Pepe’s care and diagnosis, and has maxed out her credit. She even lost her job because she was taking too much time off to care for Pepe!

Pepe has a genetic condition call PRAA (read more about it HERE). In short, a birth defect around his heart has caused the artery to constrict his esophagus, resulting in Megaesophagus (read more HERE). The short version of this is: the esophagus enlarges and is too big to correctly swallow food, causing chocking and vomiting. Food can (and will) get stuck in the throat, leading to infection, and death. Dogs with this condition use a special type of chair that holds them straight up, like a person standing, while eating. This helps, with gravity, get the food down the throat into the stomach.

The good news is that PRAA can be corrected with surgery, and then the esophagus will go back to normal. Most dogs who get PRAA surgery in time live normal, healthy lives with no ongoing care or medication required. And Pepe’s doctor says his chances are very good, over 90%! The only bad news here is that this procedure is rare, complex, and only a handful of doctors do it. It is very expensive.

We are helping Alexandra find surgeons to do the procedure. She has already contacted some and gotten a price of around $10,000 and up. It is going to be expensive. It is also urgent. Pepe’s doctor says that were it not for the consistent and constant care Victoria provides Pepe, he would have already died. All donations are only for Pepe, paid only to the surgeon when the procedure is performed. Below are notes from Pepe’s doctor, click to enlarge: