She is as cute as they come, and only a few weeks old, but this sweet little girl has a life affecting and potentially deadly birth defect....

There isn't any other way to say it other than to say it.....the little girl we have named Pickles can't hardly poo.  She strains and strains and strains and hardy anything comes out.

Pickles is so young and so small that after visiting with Dr. Horgan at LeadER, there were a couple options - one major surgical with reasonable outcomes, and one slightly less invasive - a "rectal bougienage" which basically means that they " gently stretch and widen a narrowed anal or rectal canal"  (Thank you Google as we sure as heck weren't coming up with that one on our own....)

The original hope was that Pickles would be able to pass some poo so that she could maybe get even one week older/bigger, but it wasn't to be- she was in too much discomfort so Pickles went for the first of "a few" bougienage procedures with Dr. Walton, Internal Medicine Specialist at LeadER, to stretch out her rectal canal with the first round having been 5mm.

This is one of those "one step at a time" sort of things and we will see if the first one helped and then if so, continue on that trajectory.  We have fingers and paws crossed that we can help her via the non-surgical route as wile the surgical route can have good outcomes, it is a very delicate procedure.

We are back again on bended knee to ask your support to help us help Pickles and cover her care so far.  As always, every dollar counts toward the Funding Finish Line and makes it possible for us to continue to say "yes we can help!"