Bella's Fundraiser- Help us keep her with us.

Hi, my name is Chelsea Munro and on the 12th of march, our lives changed. In January 2021, we got a border collie who is named Bella and we fell in love with her. She was everything i had ever wanted as i had longed for a dog for 10 years before this. We were ecstatic to be able to finally have the chance to have a loving fur baby of our own. She was a healthy puppy...or so we thought. On the 10th of march when Bella was only 4 months old , we had noticed that Bella looked like she had some form of limp with her front two legs and so we took her to the vet and as result, they told us to come back in a week. The next morning we woke up, she couldn't even sit up. She was completely paralyzed and become this way simply overnight. We then took her to the vets where they referred us to a neurologist as they weren't quite sure what the problem was. We had to drop her off at the hospital and they did an MRI on her and came to the diagnosis that she had hydrocephalus (Water head) which was a genetic disease she had since she was born. Hydrocephalus is when there is too much cerebral spinal fluid being produced and so it just builds up into her brain. This condition was so severe that if they didn't operate straight away, she would've passed away that night. Of course we agreed to the surgery as we didn't want to lose her. The surgery consisted of a shunt being put in Bella which allows the fluid to drain from her brain as she goes to the toilet. In order to do this, they had to cut her open on her head and side so they could insert a tube going from her head to her abdomen. As a result of this, she was nearly completely shaved. She could never wear a collar again, play with a ball, play with other dogs and just missed out on her time as a puppy. She made a speedy recovery and was walking again. It was like nothing happened. We were then handed the bill of the surgery which came to £7000. Our insurance covered part of this and so we had no more insurance left. We had never thought that something like this was to happen. We were worried that if it happened again, we wouldnt be able to afford to save her. They told us that 9 times out of 10, dogs with this condition had to be put down due to how expensive it was but Bella was our baby and we wanted to do everything we could to save her. She was only 20 weeks old when it happened after all.

Fast forward to a couple of months, we notice a change in Bella's behavior. She was already a dog that was always filled with anxiety but it got worse. Bella could only wear a harness to go on walks and one day in July we decided to take it off as it was a very hot day. Little did we know that we wouldn't be able to get it back on her. She had developed this fear of the harness and would not let you put it on, she got so scared that when you would put the harness around her stomach, she would try and snap. We knew this wasn't like her and so for the next few weeks, we made sure to not take her harness off. One morning we woke up and she had chewed it all off. We wanted answers to why this sudden change in behavior has taken place. We took her back to the animal hospital where they put the harness on her but also told us that her behavior may be the way it is because there could be a blockage in the tube. They wanted to do an MRI on her to see what the problem was but we couldn't afford it as it was £3000. They had also mentioned doing the surgery again but we didn't want to have to put her through that again if the only issue is her behavior and also because we couldn't afford to do it again. We had no insurance left. There could be a number of problems wrong with Bella but we had to go home with no answers. She is currently on painkillers and steroids to help see a change in her. She is getting better and has had no issues on these pills so far and can be on them for the rest of her life. The worse part about it all is that the tube could kink at any moment and we can't afford to save her. We also cannot know what is wrong with her without doing these expensive tests.

We are asking for even just a small donation of £1 so we can allow Bella to live her life just like any other normal puppy. It is not fair that she had to miss out on so much and could have her life cut short at any moment.

Thank you,

Chelsea Munro and Family x