Hello, I'm Laura and I'm a dog mummy to our beautiful Labrador X Springer ARLO.

Unfortunately Arlo became poorly and our insurance limit of £4000 was hit very quickly!

Arlo is 4, and is a important part of our family. We have had him from a pup and couldn't ever imagine life without him.

Unfortunately on Sunday 8th September at 5pm Arlo became extremely unwell, and extremely quickly! He was hemorrhaging severely from his bottom. The room looked like a multiple murder scene! My poor boy was just led in it, lifeless.

We rushed him down to the emergency vets and they started working on him straight away. We were in a state of shock, I've never seen so much blood, and I'm a Phlebotomist!

We were told to say goodbye to Arlo and they would do all they could.

We went home and waited for the phone to ring, and finally it did. We were told we had a very poorly boy, the vet believes he had ingested poison, maybe not directly, but by eating the poo or remains of an animal who had. He said not to get our hopes up of Arlo surviving the night.

We don't use anything that could ever harm an animal.

We walked him in the woods near our home, and believe he may of eaten something there.

His blood wasn't clotting, he was bleeding massively, his blood pressure dropped, his temperature dropped and his kidneys started to pack up. He went completely flat..

We said we wanted a phone call no matter what the time was in the night.

I cried all night, the kids cried and even my husband cried. I have only seen him cry once before.

The vet called me at 7am, he survived the night somehow, but his blood sugars were low and his body started to fill with fluid. I said as long as he's not in pain, try and keep him going and let me know when I could come in and see him. I didn't want to give up on him. He's only 4 and my boy, he's to young to die!

At 12pm the vet called, she said to get together who needs to say goodbye as he's not responding to any of the treatment. Myself, my husband and the kids went in and said goodbye, we hugged him so tightly, it just didn't feel real. His floppy ears were cold, his eyes were sunk and he just looked so tired.

I asked if everything had been tried, the vet said they could do a transfusion, but he had a really low chance of survival due to his blood pressure, heart rate and temperature. She said she would, but if he's going to pass, it'll happen quickly. She assured me he wasn't in pain, as I didn't want to make him suffer, he had already been through enough.

She also had to get another line in him and get a tube into his tummy, which wasn't easy as he was so dehydrated and poorly. So we gave our last kisses, cuddles and nose rubs to Arlo and left. None of us said a word in the car, we were all numb.

Our boy, who was jumping about, doing zoomies and knocking things off the table with his uncontrollable waggy tail the morning before, was led in an intensitive care room fighting for his life.

An hour after the treatment started, he was still alive. 3 hours after, he was still hanging on, then it got to our bedtime, and our boy was still there... and his bloods were showing small signs of improvement. I made the vet promise to call me no matter the time if anything changed.

The phone rang at 7am, Arlo was still with us! But all through the night he had to have a 1 to 1 nurse. He went up and down, again and again.

So we are where we are now, Arlo is alive and amazingly walking!! He hasn't passed blood for a few hours but he's not eating and his digestive system isn't working. He's got a lot of fluid in his tummy. He has absolutely no control over his bowl and bladder.

He's having a glucose drip and fluids. He's being peg fed through his nose. He is still needing alot of care.

Unfortunately our insurance limit was hit very quickly, with all the 1 to 1 intensive care, the out of hours treatment and the medication. He's got a very long way to go yet. We won't be bringing him home for a while unfortunately.

We just need a little help to pay for his continuing treatment. So here I am, asking for anything to help, we'd be so greatful and so will Arlo! We just want our boy home.

Even if you can't donate, please don't put rat poison down, and if you know of people who do, let them know about Arlos story! The consequences are horrific and our hearts have been broken.

A few pictures of Arlo, and his human brothers.

Thank you