❤️  Cautious Hope for Our Brave Boy, Timber  ❤️

I waited several days before posting another update so we could see the good, the bad, and the ugly clearly. The truth is—we’ve had a little of everything… but mostly good. And for the first time in a long time, the good finally feels like it’s winning.
 

Let’s start with the good.

Timber’s spirit is beautiful. He’s eating like a champ, bright, happy, and his abdominal drain was finally removed after the fluid dropped low enough. Since then, he hasn’t had any discomfort or bloating. That alone feels like a huge step forward.
 

Now for the hard part.

A known side-effect of amikacin is kidney damage. The first warning sign showed up as casts in his urine, so his critical care team spaced out his doses to every 36 hours instead of 24. For two days, no casts. This morning, unfortunately, they returned. The risk of permanent kidney injury was simply too great, so the team made the call to stop amikacin completely.
 

The good news is that Timber is still on Meropenem and tolerating it well, and the specific bacteria we were targeting with amikacin is no longer showing up in his urine. We’re hopeful the time he spent on it was long enough to keep it from coming back.
 

Now for something I never thought I’d be doing.

When Timber was at his absolute worst—when nothing was working and we were truly running out of options—his team discussed a very experimental protocol we had once used successfully on Timber’s severe skin infections. Because the most dangerous bacteria seemed to be coming from his abdominal drains, we made the decision, after 48 hours of intense discussion, to try a highly diluted bleach solution as a last resort.
 

A very small, extremely diluted amount of bleach was added to roughly 100 ml of sterile fluid and infused through his drain. It remained in place for about an hour before being fully withdrawn. His IV fluids were increased throughout the process to ensure additional dilution and tissue protection.
 

It sounds terrifying. Believe me, it was. And I would never recommend this to anyone. There are no studies, no guidelines, and bleach is absolutely toxic if used improperly. But one of the vets on his team had used it once before to save a dog when all other treatments had failed. Timber was dying. We had no options left. And I was not going to lose him without trying every single safe measure we could take.
 

Within eight hours, the fluid coming from his drain was clearer. The bacteria levels dropped. The inflammation decreased by almost half, and kept dropping each day. Combined with the antibiotics, it gave him the breakthrough he desperately needed. The drain is now out, and that chapter is behind us.
 

Now back to the present.

Timber has been at CVRC for almost three months. He is truly a VIP patient—not because of his condition, but because of how deeply every single person there loves him. There has never been a moment without eyes on him. They celebrate every small win, and they’ve carried him through every setback. He’s family there.
 

We expect his granular casts to be gone within the next day or so, just as they disappeared last time when we stopped amikacin. To give Timber the best chance possible, we’ve decided to keep him in ICU for another four days. It’s incredibly expensive, but the next week will tell us if the worst is truly behind him, and I don’t want him home until his team is confident he’s stable.
 

For the first time, I am cautiously—truly cautiously—optimistic. Timber looks better. He feels better. And for the first time in weeks, he acts like a dog who believes the hardest days are behind him.
 

Thank you for loving this dog through the most horrific, impossible moments. He refused to give up, and your support is a big part of why he’s still here. We are beyond grateful for every message, prayer, donation, and ounce of love you’ve sent his way. Timber is fighting because he knows he is loved.