This is Suzie, my 8 year old English Springer Spaniel who lives for walkies and chasing ballies. She is my world. Suzie came into my life at a time of grief, having lost of my sister unexpectedly. She brought purpose, distraction, but mostly love at a time when I really needed it. She has helped me through some pretty tough days. Unfortunately, however, now the tables have turned, and I'm reaching out to you today to ask for your help in supporting Suzie in her hour of need, just as she has helped me.
During her short life Suzie has faced many challenges, and as you can see from her photograph, one of those challenges was Glaucoma. It took affect very quickly and unfortunately was not picked up straight away by the vets, consequently she lost the sight in her left eye and had to have it removed at great emotional and financial expense.
However, here we are again, less than two years down the line facing our next challenge. Suzie has sustained significant damage to her rear right-leg. After taking her to the local vets and getting her leg X-rayed, it was initially decided that the injury could be managed through anti-inflammatries and pain relief. Life returned back to normal for a while but it wasn't long before the problem flared up again.
After a second round of X-rays we were then referred to a joint specialist. The vet concluded that Suzie's knee joint was beyond the point of repair and advised she was most likely in constant pain. The cruciate ligament had torn and no amount of operations would be able to rectify the damage.
We were left with only two options; either we have a complete knee replacement (who knew that was a thing in dogs?? ) or we continue with medication and hope the leg does not deteriorate further. Our expectations had been managed in terms of the final outcome of the leg, to a point where we may need to consider amputation. Neither one of these options were appealing and faced with this dilemma, I wanted to choose the option that gave Suzie the best chance of going on and living a long, happy and fulfilled life. Suzie has already lost an eye to Glaucoma, so it was a no-brainier, I knew we needed to do whatever we could to retain her leg. So we opted for the complete knee replacement, at a very high financial cost.
We have been warned that this procedure is not without its risks and it comes with its own set of challenges:
- There are very few vets across the whole of the EU that can perform this surgery.
- The knee joint is as unique as the dog itself and has to be manufactured to the dogs specifications. This means multiple iterations and tweaks between the vet and the manufacturer until the part is spot on.
- The material used to create the new knee joint is made of a high quality and durable metal (titanium).
- The joint has to be made of a material that won't be rejected by the dogs body.
- The war in Ukraine has hiked up the prices of titanium so comes at a premium cost.
- This particular joint had been designed and refined by Noel Fitzpatrick (Super Vet) so we know we are paying for high quality.
- The cost of this operation far out-weighs the pay out from Suzie's pet insurance.
- The operation comes at a premium cost £25k
By supporting Suzie with her operation not only would you be helping her live a long and painfree life, but you would also be supporting the advcancements in vetinary surgery, as Noel Fitzpatrick will be filming Suzie's procedure and uploading it to his own YouTube webpage for future learnings. Vetinary surgeons and pet owners alike will be able to view the footage and see the outcome of the operation, thus understanding more about this particular procedure and the impact on the dog. One day it could be you faced with this horrendous dillema and this may just become another standard procedure in the daily lives of our vets and pets.
I know a crowd funding appeal is a tall ask and not one I have taken lightly. I am hoping that I can raise as much money as possible to offset the outstanding balance I will need to bridge the costs.
All that is left for me to say is a huge thank you to anyone who is happy to donate to a worthy cause. Suzie will be forever in your debt ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
