Help Ducky Get Life-Saving Surgeries

It’s no secret that Ducky is loved beyond words. We got him from friends in January. He was a birthday gift for our daughter Sailor. She was over the moon in love with him. Right away something was off though. He paced and threw up a lot right after he ate. Things took a turn for the worse when we got him his vaccines. With in 48 hours he was dying. He was having seizures, head pressing, foaming at the mouth and his eyes were rolled out facing two different directions. Josh and I rushed him to the pet ER and I could feel his breathing getting more and more labored the whole way there. We ran in and tossed him to the first employee we saw. Shortly after that we got the bad news that he has a extrahepatic portosystemic liver shunt and will die with out surgery. It is a bad one to already be causing him this much trouble. They did what they could to get him through the night . The next morning he was at our family vet when they opened and she gave him 72 hours or less to live. Bottom line was Ducky needed a $26,000 surgery to survive, but wasn’t old enough, big enough or stable enough to have. We have been determined these last 7 months to keep him alive. It’s been stressful and heartbreaking, but we love him. We can’t leave him for long because he needs around the clock medicine. We have to leave events and family gatherings early so we can rush home to feed him and medicate him. He has been our first priority. A couple weeks ago we were told he is currently stable enough for surgery A very, very expensive surgery. With that excitement came the frustration of finding out he also needs a surgery to remove his bladder stones, a surgery to correct his cryptorchidism and a surgery to remove all his baby teeth… not one fell out. In the words of two different vets… we have a “lemon”. He is OUR LEMON though. After endless tears, heartache, prayers and a TON of research we have made the decision to take Ducky to Oregon State University for 3 of his 4 surgeries. We will drive the 12 hours there on my birthday this Monday and then stay there for the week while he has testing, surgery and then recovers. This isn’t with out risk. He has an 95% chance of survival. Which is amazing compared to the fact only 50% of dogs with extrahepatic portosystemic shunts make it to 1 years old and by 2 almost all die if they haven’t had surgery.

I am so beyond thankful for my mom Nancy Nix for making this trip with Ducky and me!! Thankful for my husband who is willing to spend what most spend on car, on a dog instead. I am also thankful for Sherrie Robertson who has cared for Ducky all year when we can’t. It has taken a village to keep this little guy alive. Please, pray that this all goes well. It’s a lot and a lot of coordinating.

If anyone is wanting to donate towards Ducky’s medical costs we would be forever grateful. Every little bit helps. We have already spent thousands on him and will continue to do so.

Follow his journey on Instagram:

Ducky.our.yorkie

UP-DATE 10/3/24

Here goes A VERY LONG update…. I am heartbroken and feeling completely defeated. We drove the 12 hours to Oregon and received more bad news.

Ducky was born with an Extrahepatic portosystemic liver shunt, which we knew. Blood flow doesn’t go through his liver. The shut makes it bypass the liver. We all need a functioning liver to survive. Ducky was going to have a surgery to band off the blood flow in his shunt, then the blood to flow would correctly go through the hepatic veins within the liver.

It’s super risky and comes with complications. It is his ONLY way to have a chance at really living.

Ducky was put under for a CT on Tuesday which is dangerous for shunt dogs because they can’t filter the anesthetic drugs through their liver. Well, the CT machine malfunctioned and they had to put Ducky under again for another CT.

When we came in for the results they weren’t good.

Shunt dogs are at a risk of a post op seizure that KILLS them. It is normally up to an 18% chance. It happens 2-5 days after they were put under. That alone was terrifying to hear. For Ducky his odds are higher to have this deadly seizure. Since he was put under twice on Tuesday it made it more risky to put him under for surgery Wednesday. His liver is abnormally small and he had no viable hepatic veins show up in his liver in the CT scan. So if they pinched off the shunt, there would be no where for the blood to really flow. He also wasn’t clotting correctly. So he would have needed a blood transfusion during surgery. The odds were stacked against him. The surgeon still wanted to risk it and do the surgery the next day because it is his best chance of living. The surgery would have looked different though. She was going to go in to see if there may be actual viable hepatic veins in the liver that the CT didn’t pick up. If there was then she was going to clamp off the shunt. The issue with that is he most likely would have thrown more shunts through his liver as the blood burst in from a super large shunt into an abnormally small liver. If that happened he would still need to always be on a special diet and medically managed with the small shunts, but he would have some blood flow in his liver and a longer life.

I couldn’t put him through all that though. None of it sounded good. They kept bringing up this massive post op seizure that he was at risk of because he can’t filter anesthesia. Josh told me to bring our baby home… he didn’t want him to die in OR on an operating table. So that’s what I did. He had to be closely monitored after his CT all night to make sure there was no seizure activity. Then we headed home yesterday.

Our plan moving forward…. He is scheduled for the exploratory shunt surgery October 21st back in Oregon again. Reasons it could be more successful waiting 3 weeks….they put him on a preventative anti seizure medication now so it’s in his system for surgery, he is starting Vitamin K so his blood will clot better and shouldn’t need a blood transfusion during surgery and he won’t be coming out of anesthesia from TWO CT’s scans the day before. Even though it will be “safer” it’s still very, very risky and the odds of Ducky coming home aren’t in his favor.

I am crushed and devastated.

In the meantime my mom and I are taking him to UC Davis to meet with a special nutritionist that works with dogs that have Ducky’s condition. Hopefully we can help manage him with a very special diet. He has been on a special prescription diet since his first episode right after we got him. It isn’t enough nutrients for him though. His body needs more.

At this point I am a crazy dog mom… I won’t stop trying to extend this sweet boys life. We love him to much.

On our way to Oregon

OSU the morning of his testing