Urgent Spine Surgery On Great Dane

This is our beautiful Great Dane Augustus or Gus or Gussy. He has been a fighter all his life. We nearly lost him when he was 18 months old from pneumonia – we sat up all night for days holding his head up so that he could breathe – the vets couldn’t take him as they had nowhere big enough for him. But he survived that and grew bigger and stronger.

We nearly lost him again when his character changed and no-one knew why. He lost his hair, became depressed and aggressive. But we fought for him and discovered he was hypothyroid. After three days on thyroxine we had our beautiful, playful, popular and happy boy back. He still needs pills every day and will forever.

And now aged only five he faces a huge hurdle again. He suddenly collapsed recently. We now know he has a huge disc bulge in his neck which is dangerously compressing his spinal cord so that without surgery he will become completely paralysed. Of course he is having the surgery – he needs it. We’d do anything for him. This dog brings a smile to everyone who meets him, he has so many friends – human and dog. He has been in charity calendars and has helped people frightened of dogs to overcome their fears. He is loved by all the children here and we can’t walk him anywhere without hearing cries of “Augustus”. He’s hugged by so many children every day.

He also licks windows and shiny cars and spins in circles when he’s excited and loves his sofa cuddles. And we want him to be all those things again.

We’ve never asked for anything for ourselves but for our dog we would do anything. Sadly with all his history and conditions the insurance just doesn’t cover this operation.

Augustus is said by many people to be special. We truly believe he is and our hearts thank you so very very much for even reading his story. We will be posting updates on his Instagram page – augustusthegreatestdane

Thank you and bless you.