Raisin' for Raisin
Donation protected
This is Raisin.
Raisin is a blend of some kinds of dogs. Likely Dachshund, maybe Chihuahua, potentially Newfoundland.
She has been developing this unique and slightly bizarre little blend for around 4 months.
She has been so preoccupied with this development (largely focussed on nose-growing it seems) that she has neglected the required anatomical developments and retained an extra vessel in her heart.
Medically, this is Patent Ductus Arteriosus, which will limit her life to less than a year unless she has surgery to remove the vessel and correct the flow of blood in her heart. A flow which is currently making mischief running in whichever directions it chooses; thus distending her heart.
Although poetically a big heart that runs wild sounds like a wonderful thing, realistically (yup, reality ruins all) it needs to be smaller and more uniform. Reality is costly though and as I’ve spent most of life in education trying to forge a career in the NHS, I lack the required funds of £3000-4000. Unfortunately I also lack insurance because insurance is apparently only for healthy animals which don’t need surgery. When we first got her she was in a poorly state, and rather than just leaving her all weepy-eyed and skinny in her cage, we took her away and took her straight to a vet who told us she had a level 3 heart murmur. From that moment insurance wasn’t available to us. We were worried enough at a level 3 murmur; we were heartbroken when we took her to a specialist and found the much worse reality that we are now faced with.
Raisin has to have urgent and risky surgery within the next two weeks. I don’t like making this page, or asking anybody at all for any amount of money. But Raisin really needs it, and I think I need it to help make sense of the world, and I think the world needs it to keep up its balance of good. Because that’s what she is: just really, really, stupidly full of good.
She makes 99% of people who see her smile. The other 1% I’m not convinced have actually seen her. She is very small, as I said.
She’s bouncy and happy and makes the parts of the world she visits brighter.
If her little heart lets out, then little parts of other people’s hearts will let out too.
This might sound dramatic, but it kind of is. It’s not just routine surgery that she’s having because while her heart is big, she is tiny. Too tiny for the normal keyhole surgery, and too poorly to wait to see if she will grow. She weighs only slightly more than a bag of sugar – 1.3kg.
This makes everything a lot more uncertain and success rates unknown.
She’s going to be packing her little bags for the Royal Veterinary College on 31st October (of all days!) and going for open heart surgery and we will just be wishing with everything we have for all those hallowed souls to give her a resilience beyond her size, and for surgeons to have unheard of dexterity and skill to keep her bouncing around for years to come.
If it is successful then she hope for a normal life expectancy.
Although really she’ll never be just normal; she has a way of erasing the sadness from the bleakest of days, and I think this might make her magic. I hear that kind of thing is pretty rare.
I’m so lucky to have her and I’m so glad that she found us, despite all of this. I’m also beyond grateful that she remains unaware of her condition and hasn’t yet had to feel its effects.
I hate that she will have to go through surgery and pain and fear, and that I can’t explain anything, or give reassurance, or have guarantees.
But, despite the pain she’ll have, and the lack of guarantees, she deserves a proper chance before she becomes truly unwell and loses her bounce before leaving us far too early. I hope you’ll agree and that maybe you’ll send a donation her way.
Any amount, even if it’s as small as her, will be hugely appreciated. More than any words can convey. Not just by me, but by her and anyone else who’s smiled just at seeing her forever-wagging tail.
Thank you.
Raisin is a blend of some kinds of dogs. Likely Dachshund, maybe Chihuahua, potentially Newfoundland.
She has been developing this unique and slightly bizarre little blend for around 4 months.
She has been so preoccupied with this development (largely focussed on nose-growing it seems) that she has neglected the required anatomical developments and retained an extra vessel in her heart.
Medically, this is Patent Ductus Arteriosus, which will limit her life to less than a year unless she has surgery to remove the vessel and correct the flow of blood in her heart. A flow which is currently making mischief running in whichever directions it chooses; thus distending her heart.
Although poetically a big heart that runs wild sounds like a wonderful thing, realistically (yup, reality ruins all) it needs to be smaller and more uniform. Reality is costly though and as I’ve spent most of life in education trying to forge a career in the NHS, I lack the required funds of £3000-4000. Unfortunately I also lack insurance because insurance is apparently only for healthy animals which don’t need surgery. When we first got her she was in a poorly state, and rather than just leaving her all weepy-eyed and skinny in her cage, we took her away and took her straight to a vet who told us she had a level 3 heart murmur. From that moment insurance wasn’t available to us. We were worried enough at a level 3 murmur; we were heartbroken when we took her to a specialist and found the much worse reality that we are now faced with.
Raisin has to have urgent and risky surgery within the next two weeks. I don’t like making this page, or asking anybody at all for any amount of money. But Raisin really needs it, and I think I need it to help make sense of the world, and I think the world needs it to keep up its balance of good. Because that’s what she is: just really, really, stupidly full of good.
She makes 99% of people who see her smile. The other 1% I’m not convinced have actually seen her. She is very small, as I said.
She’s bouncy and happy and makes the parts of the world she visits brighter.
If her little heart lets out, then little parts of other people’s hearts will let out too.
This might sound dramatic, but it kind of is. It’s not just routine surgery that she’s having because while her heart is big, she is tiny. Too tiny for the normal keyhole surgery, and too poorly to wait to see if she will grow. She weighs only slightly more than a bag of sugar – 1.3kg.
This makes everything a lot more uncertain and success rates unknown.
She’s going to be packing her little bags for the Royal Veterinary College on 31st October (of all days!) and going for open heart surgery and we will just be wishing with everything we have for all those hallowed souls to give her a resilience beyond her size, and for surgeons to have unheard of dexterity and skill to keep her bouncing around for years to come.
If it is successful then she hope for a normal life expectancy.
Although really she’ll never be just normal; she has a way of erasing the sadness from the bleakest of days, and I think this might make her magic. I hear that kind of thing is pretty rare.
I’m so lucky to have her and I’m so glad that she found us, despite all of this. I’m also beyond grateful that she remains unaware of her condition and hasn’t yet had to feel its effects.
I hate that she will have to go through surgery and pain and fear, and that I can’t explain anything, or give reassurance, or have guarantees.
But, despite the pain she’ll have, and the lack of guarantees, she deserves a proper chance before she becomes truly unwell and loses her bounce before leaving us far too early. I hope you’ll agree and that maybe you’ll send a donation her way.
Any amount, even if it’s as small as her, will be hugely appreciated. More than any words can convey. Not just by me, but by her and anyone else who’s smiled just at seeing her forever-wagging tail.
Thank you.
Organizer
Claire Louise
Organizer
