Help Beeker live with a life-saving surgery

Co-organized

Gena Netherwood and 2 others are organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Rhonda Letson.

Donation protected

Hi! My name is Gena and I am fundraising on behalf of my brother, Chris, and his sweetiepup Beeker. Beeker is only 7 months old.

In April of 2023, my brother lost his dog, Loki. Loki was 9 years old. It was traumatic for Chris as he collapsed, lost consciousness, and never recovered. The vet said likely a burst tumor.

A couple months later, his dog, Artax, was declining rapidly from liver failure. He was lovingly put to rest at home with Chris. He was 10 years old.

In June, Chris got a puppy. His name is Beeker. He is the sweetest boy, and he is BEST FRIENDS with my daughter’s six month old puppy. They are similar in size and do some epic zoomies.

Suddenly, on December 17th, Beeker began showing signs of disorientation, stumbling, drooling, and foaming. His mouth was hanging open. As Chris recently just lost his other boys this year, he messaged me and I came over. We decided immediately to take him to the emergency vet (the same one that helped him with Loki’s sudden passing.)

They assumed he got into a medicine he shouldn’t have. Chris had them hospitalized him for fluids, etc., until he perked up.

They fed him chicken for a meal and he began declining further and getting worse, with head pressing, circling, and seemed to be losing his vision.

His liver levels were high. They suspected that he actually had something called Portosystemic Shunt, which in his case is congenital and there since birth. He only began to show symptoms now.

A portosystemic shunt (PSS) is an abnormal connection between the portal vascular system and systemic circulation. Blood from the abdominal organs, which should be drained by the portal vein into the liver, is instead shunted to the systemic circulation by the PSS or shunting vessel. This means that a portion of the toxins, proteins, and nutrients absorbed by the intestines bypass the liver, resulting in decreased hepatic blood flow and impairment of normal hepatic metabolic functions, and are shunted directly into the systemic circulation.

There are two categories of congenital shunts, extrahepatic (outside the liver) and intrahepatic (inside the liver). While most portosystemic shunts are congenital (the dog or cat is born with the shunt), under certain circumstances, portostystemic shunts may be acquired secondary to another problem with the liver (acquired shunts). In a normal pet, the blood that exits the intestines, spleen, and pancreas enters the portal vein, which then takes blood to be filtered by the liver. The liver metabolizes and detoxifies this blood. If a shunt is present, the liver is deprived of factors that enhance liver development (hepatotrophic factors), which results in failure of the liver to reach normal size (hepatic atrophy). A common result of hepatic atrophy is hepatic insufficiency, which then combined with the circulating toxins proteins and nutrients frequently results in hepatic encephalopathy (a clinical syndrome of altered central nervous system function due to failure of normal liver function).

Beeker has since had a CT scan to figure out exactly where his was located, and if he had a single or multiple.

The good news is he has just a single shunt. The bad news is it’s intrahepatic, meaning inside his liver. This requires a more nuanced surgery and he has had to be referred out to a speciality surgical center.

With surgery, his prognosis is fairly positive. While intrahepatic is more complicated, it still has a high success rate that can lead to an almost normal life with an altered diet.

Without surgery, he could die in 2 to 10 months.

He is just a 7 month old pup. He deserves to live. He deserves a chance. Getting up to this point has already put Chris in the hole for $7,500. The surgery will need to be in a week or two, or whenever he is more stable. Presently he is temporarily blind from the toxins and some other neurological symptoms, but once we can get him medically stable… he must have this surgery.

We are getting a quote for surgery soon. Our low goal is $2,000 as on the very low end, that is some of the cost. It can go as high as $12,000… but I suspect that is for multiple shunts. My gut tells me it will be around $5,000 to $7,000.

As soon as we receive an estimate after a consultation with the specialist animal surgery center, I will update.

Chris was, as an adult, recently diagnosed with ASD. His dogs are his children, period. He needs them… and he has already lost so much this year.

The CareCredit is maxed out after getting to this point. Any help towards the surgery that will give him a chance of life back is greatly appreciated. My brother cannot lose another one of his little furry family members. This one is just a baby and needs us all to help him.

This has all happened this year. Loki, in April, our great aunt in May, Chris got Beeker in June, and Artax died in July.