Rosie’s liver shunt surgery

Hi, Rosie is our 22 month old Border Terrier.

At only 11 weeks old Rosie collapsed and was rushed to our local vets. They were unsure of what was wrong with her so immediately referred her to the Dick White Referral Unit in Newmarket.

Rosie was kept in for a week and underwear several tests and was eventually diagnosed with an internal liver shunt. We was quoted £8000 to £10000 for her operation. As Rosie’s shunt is congenital (she was born with it) it’s not covered by insurance. We left it as we was unsure of what to do and needed more information. When Rosie went back at 6 months old the price of her surgery had risen to £10000-£12000. We sort another specialist, the Cambridge veterinary college and they quoted £40000-£6000 but no payment plan. Rosie’s chances of survival were 80% which sounds good but there was a 20% chance it her not surviving, 20% chance of not making it through the five day survival period and a 20% chance of her getting another shunt. We know many dogs have lived a long and happy life without surgery so we opted to medically manage her. That has gone well until recently. Rosie has urine infections constantly, she has crystals in her bladder. We had her spayed in June as she doesn’t cope well being in heat. Since then she’s had blood in her urine and another two urine infections so is on antibiotics for the foreseeable future. Today after being ok in the morning, quickly went downhill and has bled from her bottom where she’s desperately trying to poop. She’s drinking so much that she’s leaking and has wet our bed which she’s only done when she’s had a bad infection. The vets gave prescribed her medication for colitis. All this is linked to her shunt. Unfortunately Rosie is having more and more bad days than good, today we honestly thought we was going to lose her.

We’re now at the point where we have to take the chance and allow her to have the operation that might possibly save her life or at least give her a better quality of life because at the moment she doesn’t have much.

we don’t like to ask but feel we have not her choice in order to save Rosie so please anything you can donate will mean the absolute world to us and to Rosie.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read Rosie’s story