Help save 3 legged Tobi with his life saving surgery

*****Update*****

09-09-2024

We would like to thank all people who have donated so far for Tobi to have his lifesaving operation, however, we are still way short of the required funds for him to have this surgery. We ask if you could spare a few pennies to help save this delightful boy or, if not, please share his post far and wide so we can generate more help for him.

Everyone meet kind and beautiful 2 year old Tobi.

Tobi was adopted into the UK from Romania on the 23rd July 2023.

Tobi is a very calm and peaceful dog despite being severely let down by numerous humans. Let me tell you his story.

Sometime in February 2023 Tobi was found with a horrific injury. We assume he was hit by a motor vehicle. His left front leg was severely damaged. The veterinary in Romania, at that time, focused purely on that leg. After examination and x-rays the vet deemed the only option was to amputate the leg, thus leaving him on 3 legs. Now, normally for a healthy dog, this would not be a problem, as we all know dogs adapt quickly to having only 3 legs. Tobi underwent the surgery to remove his left front leg.

Shortly after that one of our team at ABLDR contacted the association in Romania and asked about his back legs, as videos sent to her were showing him "bunny hopping" as he walked. The association contacted the vet again and asked about the rear legs, to receive the reply "It is just where he is adapting to using 3 legs". With this explanation, Tobi was then adopted. Little did we know what was to follow.

On arrival to the UK, the adopter decided to put their mind at rest and take him for an x-ray in the UK. What the x-ray revealed was truly shocking. His left rear femur is totally bent out of shape. See photo below of his X-ray.

Left of this x-ray image is his healthy femur. Right of this image is his damaged femur. How a so called "professional vet" could have missed this is totally beyond us.

The adopter then booked him to see one of the leading orthopaedic vets in the UK, who proceeded to x-ray and CT scan the leg. See the CT scan image below.

As you can see the right femur is perfectly healthy whereas the left femur is totally damaged. (CT scan in opposite direction)

The outcome is that the leg is saveable, but at huge cost to the adopter. Amputation is not possible as this would leave Tobi with 2 legs, both on one side and he can not survive like that.

The surgery would involve removal of the femur and hip joint and artificial replacements put in their place. This would then give Tobi a life he so deserves. Being only just 2 years old, and already having been let down by numerous humans we are hoping to show Tobi that there are many more humans out there that will help him on his path to a happy life.

It will not be easy for him, there will be months of costly hydrotherapy, physiotherapy, rehabilitation and pain relief from osteoarthritis, but the alternative is to leave him as he is, in pain, albeit being somewhat controlled by painkillers every day with seriously reduced mobility which, over time, will eventually only get worse to the point that he will not be able to walk or possibly stand. As he is so young we feel that his best years are yet to come and with everyone's help save Tobi so he can live a full happy life.

Tobi is also on Instagram. You can view his life here

We are asking everyone to please help give this young lad a chance of life. Without your help the adopter will have to make some serious decisions, which could result in being the end of Tobis life and he just does not deserve that.

Please help with whatever you can. The surgery is in excess of £20,000 + VAT and has to be performed within the next 5 months, however, considering the amount of times he has been let down by humans and the pain he is in each day we think he truly deserves this chance at life.

Thank you everyone for reading and thank you in advance for any donations made to help young Tobi survive and live a happy meaningful life.