Saving Ava - Surgery for a pain free life.

Emma Blackburn is organizing this fundraiser.

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We rescued Ava when she was only 4 months old. The photo above is from her time in a rescue shelter in Romania, where she lived with her siblings.

Our beautiful Ava is now 15 months old but life hasn’t been easy for her. We made sure she was fully insured with life-time cover but we didn’t expect the news we received…

She has been diagnosed with severe hip dysplasia and will need full hip replacements. Our insurance doesn’t cover such high costs.

As you can see in the X-ray, the ball joints have no support and don't fit the sockets, her hips are too shallow. It causes them to rub and grind, deteriorating over time.

This condition has caused both her hip joints to develop abnormally, the dysplasia causes pain and swelling, which will lead to arthritis.

We currently manage it with anti-inflammatory medication (Metacam) and have started hydrotherapy sessions to strengthen her muscles. She needs to get used to these sessions, as regular sessions will be crucial in her recovery if we can get her hip replacement.

We are covering the hydrotherapy fees, pain medication, specialist vitamins for joints, and will hopefully start laser and massage too. But because of this, and the current cost of living, we have no way of saving in such a short time. We are struggling so much, and feeling extremely overwhelmed at the costs involved in the surgery she needs. We realised the only way we could save Ava was to ask for help.

Crowdfunding seemed to be our only choice, it meant that we didn’t feel quite so guilty and embarrassed asking for help.

We hope people can give a small donation that will not affect their everyday life - and if lots of people donate, Ava could get her first hip replacement, and we might get close to our goal for both!

Our insurance should cover at least £3000. We are covered for a maximum of £4000 per condition (but they cap costs for hospitalisation and anaesthetic).

Her hip replacement will be £8,500 per hip! Which includes templating radiographs, general anaesthetic, surgery, implants and associated medication, hospitalisation as required for up to 3 days and discharge with medications for up to 2 weeks. It also includes up to three free rechecks.

We urgently need to raise at least £4,500 for her first hip. Ideally £5,500 to cover insurance claim deductions. The best time for this operation to have a 95% success rate is now! At 1-2 years old.

We are hoping and praying that we can, with your help, raise the additional funds.

The surgery will give her the chance to be a normal dog, she will be able to run around, play with other dogs and most importantly not be in pain. Her best chance of a full recovery is to have it done quickly, one hip at a time.

Dogs with severe cases that aren’t treated surgically will sadly have a dramatically shortened lifespan.

Ava’s background as a rescue puppy.

Her mum and unborn pups were rescued from a Uricani kill shelter by the OUR Dog Foundation and were born in a stable on bonfire night! Ava was the last of her litter to be chosen and we fell in love with her the moment we saw her.

Health issues growing up

She had complications with her first season when she was eight months old and over 7 weeks later had still not got her energy levels fully back, it was then we noticed she was starting to walk unusually on her back legs.

She had an extreme phantom pregnancy a month or so later, which left her feeling overwhelmed and scared. We’ve worked hard with our vet to get her better, and as a family gave her all the love, support and cuddles she needed to feel happy and secure in our home.

She was spayed as soon as it was safe, to prevent any more episodes and this helped her so much. We asked our vet to investigate her stiff back legs as they still hadn’t improved. She had started to yelp sometimes when she was playing too... that was when we found out about her dysplasia.

A pain-free life

Ava is the sweetest, funniest and most loving girl. She is very chatty and is so much fun.

We love her and are so grateful to have found her, we would never be without our girl. She deserves a pain-free, fun-filled life.

Thank you so much x

Please note: We have lowered the overall fundraiser goal, to £4,500 for her hip operation. In the hopes that people will consider helping Ava and are not out off by the total amount needed. We love Ava dearly and are doing everything we can to help her.