Finnegan's Unavoidable Heart Surgery

Brandon Anderson is organizing this fundraiser.

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Hi, my name is Brandon, and I'm fundraising for our Golden Retriever Finnegan.

Finnegan came into our lives as a ray of sunshine. Everywhere and everyone he saw fell in love with his unique charm. It's definitely safe to say he has the full golden attitude, he always has us laughing at something different all the time! He has made such a big impact on our lives and we have so much love for him.

6 weeks old, at this age it was noted that he had a louder than average heart beat. Hopeful as we were for him to grow out of it, unfortunately this wasn't the case.

As he grew little by little every month we kept a close eye on this. Fast forward to 6 months old, we were recommended to Dr. Jeremy Orr a veterinarian cardiologist for an ultra sound of his heart. It was at this stage that Finnegan was diagnosed with a Level 5 Heart Murmur. (double-chambered right ventricle) It was than heavily recommended to look at P.E.I. for an appointment as soon as possible. Thankfully we were able to get in a few months after.

Upon arrival and speaking with Dr. Côté, Finnegan underwent a CT Scan & an MRI scan for us to better understand everything we could.

Finn was born with an extra band of heart muscle which creates an obstruction to blood flow within a key region of his heart, the right ventricle. This condition is called a double chamber right ventricle. The degree of narrowing caused by this band of tissue varies from dog to dog, and regrettably, in Finn’s case, it is a severe degree. This means his heart must work much harder than usual (5 times harder in his case) to move blood through the heart and on to the rest of his body’s circulation.

He was started on atenolol at that time as a means of reducing the strain on his heart that this malformation causes. Surgical interventions were discussed, but after getting the more detailed images back surgery is unavoidable. Finnegan would need open heart surgery before the age of a year-and-a-half or he will not live much longer than that age. He is already almost 10 months old, which means our window of opportunity is running out of time.

The only known places that could do the surgery are in P.E.I. at AVC, or through a heart specialist in Denver, Colorado. Regardless of where the surgery itself happens to be, it was priced between 10,000-20,000 & after the previous costs for appointments (about 4600) it's safe to say we could really use some help.

Any and all funds will be used for Surgery, travelling for his Surgery, too help with time off needed for his Surgery (he would need a week recovery time at the vet afterwards)