Rocky’s Rehab

We’re James and Miles and back at the start of the year, our puppy Rocky broke his leg at only 4 months old. It was a simple accident - playing chase with another dog, he ran through her owner’s legs and she collided with him, trapping his back leg. Our fantastic vets did a fast and superb job fixing the fracture with plates and screws and Rocky healed and recovered quickly, but the operation and aftercare wiped out our insurance for the year.

It’s not uncommon for animals to reject metal plates and unfortunately Rocky’s body is doing just that. He’s been on antibiotics once already to clear up what we hoped was just a random infection at the site of the break but now it’s recurred and he’s going to have to get the plate removed.

While it’s a simple operation with a quick recovery — at least we wouldn’t have a Border Collie pup on crate rest for 6-8 weeks again! — without any insurance left this year, it’s proving something we just can’t find on our own at the moment.

Miles is a freelance editor and has suffered a sudden drop in income the past couple of months, while James is currently unemployed, recovering after having left his job last year after a severe mental breakdown. Both are now hunting down new employment but between vet bills, household bills and unexpected outlays in the current climate, the past couple of months have suddenly become tight to impossible to cover. This is so important to us that Rocky, now just over 8 months old, gets the chance to get off this second course of antibiotics for good and have the opportunity to be a puppy without limits again. 

He’s a sweet, loving pup who adores people and other dogs and is always running at full pelt, full of joy for life and exploration. He’s put up with a lot already in his young life and he’s done it all without losing any of that joy and excitement - he even tried to walk over to the nurses for a lick and a hug when he came round from his leg operation!

We would use any funds we raise to put solely towards the cost of the operation and aftercare, which we recently received the estimate for and is in the region of £2000.