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Please help Harper’s Recovery from Stage 5 IVDD surgery

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Those who know me well and maybe those who don’t even know me that well will know just how much my two dachshunds Harper & Riley mean to my husband Dev and I. They are the lights in our lives, they’ve gotten us through some of our hardest times, and brighten up our days everyday. I am truly obsessed with them.

Harper (AKA. Harpie, chicken, Velcro, cooka, baby, baby spice, puppy, puppa), 4 years old, turning 5 in November came into our lives as a fighting little runt of her litter, we got her shortly before lockdown and her world became just the 4 of us. She is a very anxious little doggie, only weighing a mere 5kg but boy she’s got character! Our world’s came crashing down on Sunday 27th May when we returned home from a lunch in our new town (and new country - I’ll get to this a little later) only to find Harper curled up in the lounge corner yelping and disoriented, with a bloated tummy and straight tail. Her back legs started buckling and that’s when Dev and I looked at each other and knew the dreaded ‘IVDD’ was suddenly a part of our lives. Harpie suffered a herniated disk injury which is caused by the IVDD. Within 2 hours her back legs were completely paralyzed.

When I was 22, my dachshund Naomi also had a herniated disk but my parents decided to make the decision to say goodbye as the chances of recovery were not very high at all and we couldn’t see her suffer. I couldn’t believe that almost 10 years later, I was faced with this decision myself and having to choose to do a lifesaving surgery on our baby Harper or choose to say goodbye. We rushed her to the emergency vet at the university of Utrecht, they were only able to give us painkillers and confirm the worst that indeed she was experiencing the dreaded IVDD. After a night of 0 sleep and only tears, we found Anicura, a hospital with a neurologist to see what our options were and what the chances of recovery were. Even though the chances were less than 50% of her ever being able to walk again, we decided to go through with the spinal surgery and the neurologist explained that this would entail a lifestyle change for our family whereby Harper would require 24/7 care. Our world has truly been turned upside down.

Her care entails home catheter, acupuncture, physio, weekly checkups, medication, crate rest, a pram and now we are in the process of getting her a little wheelchair. 4 weeks later we sadly do not have much improvement in her mobility but her personality is RIGHT BACK! This is super exciting but sad because she’s become so aware of her disability causing major frustration.

We are very uncomfortable with asking for any help, and usually tend to be stubborn and try do everything ourselves. In December of 2023 we made a massive leap in our lives and emigrated to the Netherlands from Cape Town, South Africa. We were so used to having our incredible family and support system of friends nearby to us and this is incredibly more difficult being thousands of km’s away. Of course the doggies had to join us, but first we got settled for 3 months and then in March I went back to Cape Town to fetch them from my parents who looked after them during this time and I brought them over to join us, this was a traumatic experience for us all but we are just glad to have them with us. Fast forward 2 months later, our poor Harpie is battling through IVDD.

With the chaos of the emigration, it slipped our minds to get pet insurance and this is a very known expensive op on the spine only done by specialists and as mentioned the whole list of things that we need to get and treatment done afterwards. We have used all of our savings to move over and try create a life here so this could never have come at a good time, but certainly now is a battle.

Talking about money or asking for money has never been something we are comfortable with, until being forced into this position. Any donations as big or small would mean the absolute world to Harpie and us.

Thank you to everyone in advance and thank you to our support system that has shown unwavering love and concern!

Love,
Harpie, Christina, Dev and Riley
xxxxxx
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Donations 

  • Justine Scott-Turner
    • €20
    • 7 mos
  • Anonymous
    • €50
    • 7 mos
  • Anonymous
    • €50
    • 8 mos
  • Tyne Davidson
    • €30
    • 8 mos
  • Anonymous
    • €40
    • 8 mos
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Fundraising team (2)

Christina Sardianos
Organizer
Devin Ambrose
Team member

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