Hi, my name is Elsie. I am hoping to raise money to help this beautiful Australian Shepherd named Kosmo. Kosmo is a trained diabetic alert dog for his owner/guardian Steve. Kosmo was bred by my friend and mentor Robin DeVilliers who has been breeding Australian Shepherds for over 30 years. Her dogs are the most extraordinary dogs I have ever met. They are consistently very structurally sound, healthy, intelligent and have lovely temperaments. I fell in love with these dogs after getting my first Aussie, Bonnie, who quickly became my “heart dog”. Two years ago I bred Bonnie’s sister Ginny to Kosmo, which resulted in a very lovely litter of 8 puppies. Kosmo is a very special dog and deserves the best life possible!

Robin gifted Kosmo to Steve 2 years ago. Steve himself has endured his own life threatening health challenges over the past ten years. Diagnosed with stage four cancer, Steve had no choice but to close his well established business as an Arborist. After 3 reoccurances of this cancer, Steve is now, gratefully, in remission. With the residual effects of chemo causing day to day challenges, including managing acquired Type 1 diabetes, Steve must rely on a disability pension as his income.

Kosmo provides Steve with the confidence throughout each day as Kosmo will alert to any blood sugar changes: high, low or fast dropping blood sugar levels. Kosmo now responds to Steve's blood sugar monitor beeps, and which variation of beep means. Kosmo will come running to Steve from any part of the house when the monitor goes off . Steve has further trained Kosmo how to assist during a collapse into unresponsiveness. Kosmo will reliably do all the right things to assist Steve: he will nudge him, try to roll him onto his back, bark to get attention for help, and then lay by him.

Steve and Kosmo are a deeply bonded pair. Kosmo is a very special dog and deserves opportunity to be healed so both he and Steve can live their best lives possible, together. Only the extreme financial challenges of Veterinary costs to full recovery stand in the way.

Last summer, Kosmo suffered an emergency in which he was bleeding from his urethra and straining to urinate. The diagnosis was cystine stones in his bladder and urethra. Kosmo at that time underwent emergency lifesaving surgery which cost over $5000 to remove the stones. At the time of the surgery, the veterinarian recommended that Kosmo also be neutered as to prevent a reoccurrence given that cystine stones can typically be androgynous (hormone related). This would have been an additional fee of $1000. Robin borrowed the funds to cover for this first emergency surgery but the additional funds for the neuter at that time, could not be found.

Androgynous, hormone-driven cystine, is the type 3 cystinuria. Certain breeds of dogs are prone to cystinuria and have DNA tests available the define type 1, 2, and 3. Cystine crystals/stones are virtually unheard of in the Australian Shepherd and there is no existing database of occurrences, even from the top Australian Shepherd Breed geneticist, C.A. Sharp who has over 40 years of experience researching and documenting genetic issues in the breed.

On January 28th, Kosmo suffered a reoccurrence of cystine stones blocking his urethra and had to go through another surgery to remove them the next day. Again, the surgery cost over $5000. In trying to reduce the costs of the emergency surgery, the veterinarian suggested that the neuter was again taken out of the equation. Consequently, Kosmo remains intact and in this same life-threatening situation to reoccur in the near future.

If anyone is able to donate money to help cover the costs of Kosmo’s two surgeries within the past year and an additional surgery in the near future prevent reoccurrence, it would be greatly appreciated!