Beacon, the golden retriever therapy dog for the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team, is still hospitalized while his owner continues to search for answers about his health.
As NBC’s Today Show reports, in a new Sept. 6 update, Tracey Callahan Molnar shared that the 4-year-old pup was “tired but still eager and open to gentle hugs, pets and conversation” when she visiting him at the hospital.
“We still don’t have definitive answers yet,” she wrote, alongside a video collage of Beacon and her visit. “He has needed to have fluid removed from his chest cavity multiple times and during a procedure yesterday to take tissue samples from some concerning lung tissue (that showed on the CT scan he had), they placed two ports which will in part, make the drainage of that fluid easier. it’s something they will teach me to do so that he might be able to come home sooner.” She added that the biopsy of the lung tissue will take five to seven days.
On Sept. 4, Molnar revealed on Instagram that the four-legged pup was taken to the hospital, calling it “an incredibly difficult post to make.” Beacon has over 50K followers on the social media platform, which is why Molnar hoped people would send him “wishes for healing and good health.”
At the time, she said Beacon was admitted on Sept. 3 to an emergency pet hospital after experiencing symptoms of “stiffness, moving into labored breathing, and then fever.” He was not reacting to treatments, including anti-inflammatory meds and cold laser therapy, the message said, adding that X-rays taken “showed fluid in his chest cavity which was at least in part the reason for the labored breathing.”
“The high fever was of great concern to his veterinarian. The recommendation was to transport him to an emergency hospital with specialists who could diagnose and begin to treat him,” the message continued. Molnar noted that Beacon had some diagnostics done but still has more to go. “My understanding is that there are many potential causes therefore, many things to rule out,” she wrote, adding that she would keep his faithful followers updated.
Among her “biggest request” was to send the 4-year-old pup good wishes “in whatever form that comes; positive thoughts, prayer, virtual hugs, whatever speaks to you.” She added that Beacon provides animal assisted therapy but wanted people to know that “he loves people so much that the in-person interactions he had with so many of you are also meaningful to him.”
Beacon was a fan favorite during the 2024 United States Olympic gymnastics team trials in June. He is the organization’s first therapy dog. His Instagram is filled with snapshots of him with Olympians like Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles and former Olympic gymnasts Aly Raisman and Laurie Hernandez, as well as many more athletes.
In an interview with ESPN, Molnar said that Beacon was an “emotional sponge” for people competing. “(Therapy dogs) absorb the stress of the people they’re relieving the stress off of,” she told ESPN. “So even though he might be lying still for two hours, he’s wiped out afterwards.”
Due to “challenges with logistics,” Beacon was not able to support Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics, his Instagram noted on July 22. “Beacon and I will be cheering our Olympians on from California,” Molnar wrote on the post.
Beacon would go to received Olympics-themed toys, and in late-August offered animal assisted therapy at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Lake Placid, New York.
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