A second chance at life for Louie the Frenchie

Louie is a 61/2-month-old French Bulldog that has an unusual combination of severe congenital heart diseases. When he was born there was no indication of illness and he seemed to be a happy thriving puppy. He was special right from the start with his sweet calm demeanor and undeniable ability to steal your heart. Through the weeks following his birth, everything was normal and he grew at a fairly normal rate. Once Louie was ready to go to his forever home is when the first vet diagnosed him with a grade 3 heart murmur and suggested a cardiologist. Of course, this was devastating to his birth home mom and me. There were extensive conversations and I had already decided that Louie needed me and that with support from his birth home, we were gonna try and give this little nugget the best days of his life. Louie proceeded to go to another vet for a second opinion and this vet graded his murmur at a 4. This vet wrote a referral to a cardiologist and we were hopeful that we would get some answers. The problem is that the cardiologists are mobile and only visit certain offices once a month and I felt that we didn't have time to waste. I got on it right away and started looking into other offices that might have a visit available at a sooner time. At this point, we had 3 different vets, a practicing cardiologist and a cardiologist involved. Every day I was researching and learning something new about Louie's condition. I was documenting his activity and recording his breathing so that I would have specific information to give any of the vets or cardiologists I encountered. In January, the third vet rated his murmur at a 5 and we had an echocardiogram a few days later. The practicing cardiologist prescribed Louie medicine (Pimobendan) for his heart and I was hopeful that this would help my sweet boy. The medicine seemed to make a difference and has given Louie more energy, so I was happy to see some improvement. In the midst of all this, we had a beloved family member pass so we had to travel out of town and we were worried about how Louie would do. He did fine, but as usual, we did our best to not let him get too excited. In late January my vet told me that with Louie's condition that he may only have 5 months and that the summer heat would be rough on him. To not even let him out in the heat to go to the bathroom. This is when I started my search for a place that could perform surgery on Louie and I was leaving no stone unturned. I reached out to UC Davis, and a few places in San Francisco and that's when I came across Colorado State University. They offered to discuss Louie's case in their next meeting and this gave me hope. After countless visits, medication and hundreds of dollars in just a few short months we are finally getting close to some life-saving help. After their meeting, I had some back-and-forth conversations with them and was able to give them more information, xrays and the echocardiogram info. to help with their diagnosis and hopefully a resolution. In February I received an email from the University that after looking everything over and taking the verbal information that I gave them, Louie has an unusual combination of severe congenital heart disease. They recommend that I make Louie an appointment. Whether they can do something and what exactly, depends on what they will find on a repeated comprehensive echocardiogram and a CT scan. The University most likely recommends a shunt between the two blood vessels that exit the heart to relieve possible clinical signs, but the surgery will not cure the condition. They also recommended stopping the medication that he's currently on because it's making the good part of his little heart work harder. This clinic is the only one in the US that performs this procedure. Their team has carried out the procedure on 3 dogs and they are all doing fine and do not show clinical signs after the surgery. As with any surgery, there are risks of possible complications. To lower some of the risks, Louie will need to be on lifelong medication to prevent blood clots. With all of this comes great expense, so we're hoping to get some help not only for Louie but, valuable information for other furry friends that might have this condition or something similar. Please consider donating to Louie's fund so that his life can be prolonged and he can have a better quality of life.