Big Bruce Needs Help

Bruce had breathing difficulties and was lethargic over Christmas so the emergency vet came to my house on Boxing day, she checked him over & gave him some pain relief. The next day he was worse so I took him to sore paws who said he might die due to the amount of fluid on his chest & could have a heart attack if he doesn't see a specialist straight away. I drove him to moor view in Cramlington who said they thought he had heart disease and could have a cancerous tumour causing the fluid. They asked alot of sensitive questions i.e if I want a do not resuscitate if he has a heart attack while having his chest drained. All which was very difficult as he wasn't my dog and his lawful owner lived in Australia which is 11 hour ahead time difference!

We were expecting the worse over night thinking he was going to die but they rang the next morning to say they had drained 3.5litres of fluid from his chest and he was doing ok. Fast track to the next day they rang me to say they couldn't find any cancer & that the fluid was different to what they initially thought, it was a fluid called chyle. They just needed to find out whether it was heart disease causing it. The next day they did the heart scan and they couldn't find any signs of heart disease. They wanted to keep him in as he still had fluid on his chest. They diagnosed him with Chylothorax and pneumothorax. His hospital stay costs his owner 6k. 3 scans and drainage at sore paws have costs £400 +.

There is a surgery called thoracic duct ligation which would stop the chyle fluid leaking into his chest cavity. We are now waiting for a quote from a specialist vets to do this surgery which will help Bruce recover from Chylothorax.

Now Bruce is in foster with my friend as his owner moved to Australia. He was supposedvto be going over there with him but now that isn't happening my friend has been told that the owner will not pay for any further vet bills and has given her the choice of keeping him or rehoming him. This puts my friend in a position where she does not have the funds for the surgery Bruce so desperately needs. He was insured by his owner but unfortunately does not have the cover.

He is porley again and has been back to the vets today (13/01/2025) and has his chest manually drained again. But he needs the thoracic duct ligation surgery that will stop the fluid leaking into the chest cavity.

Please give what you can so we can. Keep this beautiful boy here ☺️