Help with Leo’s Life Saving Surgeries

This is our boy Leo. He’s only just turned 6 in April and is our best friend. He’s always going on adventures with his brother Gamble and anywhere there is water he can splash and swim in, he is a happy boy. He truly is the sweetest soul.

A week ago on Wednesday night (16th July) Leo needed to be rushed to the emergency vet as he suffered a GDV (twisted stomach), and had to undergo emergency surgery immediately to save his life which unfortunately came with complications. His spleen had been twisted with his stomach and needed to be removed (luckily he can live without his spleen). He seemed to be doing well after the surgery, but later that day started to bleed significantly and needed a further emergency surgery, just under 24 hours after the first, to try and stop the bleeding. During this surgery they struggled to find where the bleeding was coming from.

They found his liver was oozing blood and think this is from a tear or torsion, however during the surgery it looked to have clotted over so decided not to interfere so as not to cause any further complications. After the surgery the bleeding started again, his blood count had dropped, his pulse was weak and he didn’t look like he was going to make it.

His brother Gamble was then rushed over to give a blood transfusion for Leo and is such a good boy, he let them take blood very quickly and without any resistance/sedation, he gave his blood to save Leo’s life.

Leo would not be with us today if it wasn’t for this blood transfusion from his fur brother. The platelets in Gamble’s blood helped Leo’s blood to clot to try and stop the internal bleeding. Leo picked up again for a while and seemed to be doing well until the bleeding restarted again later that day as his platelet count was still so low from the blood he had previously lost.

The last thing we could try was to get a transfusion of platelets to see if this would be enough to help Leo’s blood clot for a long enough period to stop the bleeding. The platelets need to be taken from recently given blood and then transported from the pet blood bank. The vet wanted to order 5 bags but there were only 3 in the country that day. All we could do was hope and pray that this would be enough.

He improved massively after this transfusion and it worked to stop the bleeding.

He has been recovering really well since. He is heading in the right direction and is continuing to improve and show all the right signs.

However, Leo now needs to see a specialist about the issue with his liver with further scans and potential surgery. This needs to be done urgently as this could be life threatening. The vet has said his case is extremely rare and could only find one other case where the liver was damaged by the GDV, and unfortunately the dog died shortly after as it was left untreated.

He has come so far and he has fought so hard to be here we can’t give up on him, especially at what we hope is this last hurdle. Everything else looks good. He looks good in himself, he’s eating and drinking and wagging his tail plenty! He’s showing all positive signs that he will be okay. He’s so strong, our big brave boy.

Luckily he is insured but so far his vet bills have come to £6330.33 over what the insurance will cover and with further appointments, scans and potential surgery this will continue to rise and he needs your help.

We will be using any donations to help pay for his specialist consultation, surgeries and vet bills and if we are so lucky to raise enough to cover this, any surplus will supply donations to the vets surgery that saved his life or be passed forward to help other animals in need.

We hate having to ask but if you can help, please do. Any donation is greatly appreciated, no matter how small. Even if you can’t help financially, it would be a huge help to us if you could share his story. We are grateful for every single thing.

Please keep him in your prayers. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your love and support.