Frank’s vet bill

Hi, we are Jacob and Leah, Frank’s parents. Frank’s our 7 month old German Shepherd puppy, he means everything to us. For the TLDR version; Frank had some worrying symptoms, our vet made an emergency referral to a specialist clinic who had to run very very expensive diagnostic tests. We are so blessed that Frank didn’t need invasive surgery, but he does have a disease which involves his jaw ‘self-destroying’ itself for the duration of his puppy-hood. The diagnostic tests alone will cost close to £4,000 and unfortunately our insurance won’t cover any of the fees. We love Frank so much and know that it is 100% worth it, but we have no idea how we are going to cover this fee in such a short period of time.

The long version:

We got Frank from Hailsham and were told that himself, his siblings and his mother were all found at the side of the road. Immediately Frank became our child, we talk about him non-stop and show anyone that will look photos of him! We’re 21 and 22 and thought we were being responsible dog parents’ getting Frankie insured, but unfortunately he started to feel poorly within the 14 day window when you aren’t covered and now we have a massive vet bill.

It started with him not playing with his toys, then very quickly he couldn’t eat his food. Our Frank’s a little soldier who powered through, and the Vet’s said he was the best tempered German Shepherd they’ve ever met!

He was referred immediately to an emergency specialist vet in London, and had a lot of very expensive diagnostic tests done. It was very difficult leaving him there and coming home to an empty house, we called the vets so many times they must of been sick of us.

From all of his tests, they were able to diagnose him with Craniomandibular Osteopathy (CMO), the vet described it as ‘his jaw bone is self-destroying’. Very hard news for us to hear, especially as there is no ongoing treatment for the illness, only pain management. The vet described his pain to us as extremely severe, and he even said when Frank was completely sedated he was still trying to keep his jaw closed. And yet Frank has never ever shown any aggression to us or any of the strangers he has been with the past few days!

Frank will have to spend more time in the hospital. It breaks our hearts that we haven’t been able to see him, and we desperately await our reunion. The vet was very hopeful about his recovery, and we feel very relieved that his condition should cease once he is fully grown. It’s very rare for a German Shepherd to experience this, it’s mostly found in terriers and is even called the ‘Westie Jaw’.

We love Frank so much and know that he deserves the best care possible and to be pain free. He will need a considerable amount of pain medication for at least the next 6 months and frequent monitoring by ourselves and the vet, but we are so excited for our boy Frank to come back to himself.

Whilst being so happy that this isn’t a life threatening disease and he will (manifesting) make a full recovery, the vet bill is a really big hit to us. We know everybody is struggling at the moment, and a lot of people won’t be able to donate but even the smallest donations are a great help. Thank you for reading this, please send positive thoughts to our baby Frank ❤️