Leia Needs The Gift of Sight

This is Leia's story written by her foster mum Louise

Eight  weeks ago shortly after arriving at Many Tears Leia was diagnosed with diabetes.  This poor sweet girl had not been with us long and she
was truly dealt another bad hand in the card game of life.

Leia was quickly moved to a me as I have experience of diabetic dogs but despite all the work put into stabilizing her diabetes she quickly started to develop cataracts. 75% of diabetic dogs will develop cataracts within 9 months of being diagnosed and time really is of the essence for a diabetic dog who develops cataracts as they can literally go blind in 24 hours and due to the very fast progression of diabetic cataracts surgery has to be done quickly before the sac that holds the eye lens ruptures and damages the retina permanently.

Over the last 8 weeks Leia has gone from a scared, timid ex breeding dog to a blossoming flower who has come to love cuddles and in the last week or 2 has found her voice and started to play and found her cheeky side. Overnight her new life was cruelly ripped from her as when we woke this morning she was unable to find her way to the bedroom door and down the stairs, diabetes had robbed her of her sight overnight. I let Sylvia know that Leia had lost her sight and then immediately got onto Rowe Referrals to discuss her case. Rowe came back to me within a couple of hours and asked that I take her in immediately.

I jumped in the car with Leia and headed off down to Bristol to see the amazing vets at Rowe and after the examination was told that one of her cataracts had already started to rupture and the other was close so there was no option to delay or she would risk losing her sight forever, they took her straight into surgery there and then.

Seeing this beautiful girl completely regress to being the scared girl she was when she first arrived at Many Tears has broken me.  Can you imagine a world where one day you can see and are having fun running around and barking and playing to waking up the following day in total darkness and too scared to move?

By the time you have read this appeal Leia will have had her surgery and hopefully it will have gone well but that is only the first hurdle, our beautiful brave girl will now have approx 4 to 6 weeks of intense aftercare and weekly visits to Rowe Referrals.

The gift of sight is a priceless gift and I am truly hoping that our amazing Many Tears family will help us to raise the funds needed to pay for Lottie's surgery. It is a big ask but I am asking you all to pull together and donate just £2 and share Lottie's story with 5 members of your family and friends, my belief is that we can get her surgery funded in no time at all if we work together as a team. Please help.