I want to say before anyone reads this: THIS IS **NOT** A REQUEST FOR MONEY....

Hi everyone. As you can see, my nic is Duchess. That's the name of our 9 y/o Dalmatian. She has been with us since a pup and she is our son's best buddy. But right now something is wrong with her. I won't go into too much detail, because I realize you guys aren't vets, but she is having a hard time walking, and just yesterday her tail went limp. We have had her to the vet once, and she took X-rays, and gave us some meds for pain. Told us to wait 2 weeks for the "expert" radiologist to come into town and read them. But she didn't see any major issues.

Now, we spent more money than we had that day, had to make arrangements on the rest of it. The problem is, she isn't getting any better. She's actually worse now because the tail thing. She is doing fine otherwise, eating, drinking using the bathroom outside and acting normally, just can't walk too good or she falls a lot. I honestly think there is something wrong with the nerves in her spine, but I am not a doc. I have had spinal issues for years, though.

Ok, the problem of course, is money. We have all of 2 cents (literally) in the bank and hubby doesn't get paid til next week, and that's already spent on stupid bills. This is killing me. If I thought it would do any good at all, I would go down and beg on my hands and knees, offer to clean the cages, anything I had to do to get them to do something for her. I would be willing to make arrangements on the amount it costs, I just cannot pay anything up front. We have nothing to sell, no way to get a loan, no family/friends with enough money to help. They are having their own financial issues.

I was wondering if anyone knew of any programs that helped people pay for things like this. I don't want any handouts. I am going to pay the total for this whatever the costs, just can't come up with much right at this second. And before anyone says anything, my internet is $15/mo and like I said, we have no money at this second. We are living check to check like a lot of folks right now. I am not saying we are destitute, just completely broke right now and she needs help right now. I had someone on Yahoo! answers tell me to surrender her so she could get "the care she deserves". And then what? She is left in a shelter where no one is adopting animals right now because they can't afford them either, then she is put down for being a burden to them and being there too long. No one there knows her, they don't know how wonderful she is, her love of her "daddy" or "brother", how she goes absolutely crazy when they pull in the driveway, how she would crawl if she had to to be where they are. She would die in there before they killed her.

Also, I am NOT, repeat NOT in NO WAY asking for donations or anything like that. I am asking if anyone here knows of a way I can get her taken care of on a payment plan, or something, anything. I can't do "doggy insurance" because they, like human insurance, have pre-existing condition clauses. I plan on calling the vet today as soon as they open and begging. I don't think it will do too much good as they are are big corporation vet clinic.

Again, I want to reiterate, I am NOT ASKING NOR WANTING MONEY FROM ANYONE HERE. Sorry, I just don't want my post being misunderstood. I don't know if I can deal with flaming right now. I have been crying for the past two weeks over her and I am exhausted. So forgive my rambling and repitition.