Best of luck with Kobe, Colossus, and hopefully all will work out. I have had my German Shepherd (my avatar) on different meds for the past 3 weeks and had to make a hard call last week. The vet advised me that the first meds had not gotten rid of the bacterial infection. Two options were, hospitalization and go from there with the initial estimate at $5000 to start or a strong antibiotics and steroids for inflammation. There really wasn't a choice as the first option was out of range. So far she seems to be responding very well to the new meds and she has gone from a dog that I thought was going to die, on me, to the point of being almost back to normal. Even using that option I am now over $1200 and counting. Best of luck with Kobe!