COOPER NEEDS YOUR HELP!

Hi, my name is Georgia. I am trying desperately to raise some money so that my dog, Cooper, can have the life changing surgery he so desperately needs.

A little history about Cooper, he’s a 5 year old German Shepherd who was unfortunately born with a leg deformity which became apparent when he was around 6 months old. He’s been with me since he was 11 weeks old and he’s always been the sweetest boy. He struggles with his anxiety which can make busy situations difficult for him to deal with, but he loves nothing more than being able to go on long walks around the fields and walks across the beach! He loves playing with his sister, Rio, who absolutely adores him. Up until recently he’s been able to do all of the things he loves and more! With vets saying he copes extremely well considering the complexity of his deformity.

WHY WE NEED HELP

Unfortunately we were a little let down by early vet intervention. Told it was growing pains and that he would grow into his legs. This was evidently not the case and it took years to get any sort of diagnosis. With the first specialist advising no surgery until he was unable to cope as well… And here we are, he’s no longer coping!

Cooper has always been the happiest boy, but due to the deterioration in his mobility, I feel like I am slowly losing the happy little boy we all know and love. I watch him daily struggle to get up and the resistance he’s showing when he has to move is becoming more obvious. We’ve been trying over the last few months to manage the pain with medication, but unfortunately even the highest doses of the strongest pain killers just don’t touch the sides.

We recently had a CT scan done for him, which showed his elbow joint is bone on bone and there is clear development of extensive arthritis. He had slight elbow dysplasia in his “good” leg along with muscle pain across his body from all the over compensating he has to do to get about each day.

He is now on reduced walks, with bi weekly hydro therapy and laser treatment to try and ease the pain. Along with all of the pain meds and joint supplements.

We are now at the point where we have exhausted all options of pain management and we are now having to go down the route of major complex surgery to remove the pain he is experiencing on a daily basis.

Without this operation it will inevitably shorten his life by years. He will get to a point where he can no longer walk and I just can’t sit back and watch that happen. He is 5 years old and deserves to finally have a pain free life!

Unfortunately my insurance will not cover the operation costs. Which have been estimated at £18000! Which certainly isn’t just spare change.

This operation will effectively fuse his elbow joint so there will be no flexion there to create the pain. This is a very complex operation with a very high complication rate and only a few vets in the country actually able to perform the surgery. Hence the excessive cost. All other surgeries have been discounted following his CT scan.

This is not something I ever thought I would be doing. Practically begging for money is not something I am comfortable doing but I have run out of options and I cannot let my boy deteriorate any further. For anyone who knows me, knows that my dogs are my absolute world and watching him suffer on a daily basis absolutely breaks my heart and is what has pushed me to take this step and set up this Gofund me page.

We are aiming to raise £5000 to go towards his operation.

I would be so grateful of any donations at all! I appreciate money is tight for everyone at the moment and who really wants to pay for someone else’s pet…But please know I am taking this step as a last resort!

All money raised will go directly toward the operation cost and aftercare treatment for Cooper.