Help Make Dolly Better

Hi everyone, my name is Laura and my beautiful dog is Dolly. Dolly is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and is only 15 months old. She had a tough start in life having been bred by what we now believe were puppy farmers.

Just one day after getting Dolly we took her to the vets with diarrhoea and blood in her stools. The vets said she was riddled with worms and said we should return her to the breeder as she was very poorly. We refused to do that as we knew she’d have no chance if we did, and we already loved her. With numerous visits to the vets, convalescence support food and a lot of love and care, after 2 months she finally started to improve.

Following this ordeal it wasn’t a surprise to us that Dolly was often unwell and needing support for her stomach, however, 3 weeks ago we became extremely concerned that she wouldn’t eat or drink and wanted to sleep constantly. We then noticed her urine had become very dark. We took her to the vets expecting them to say she had a urine infection and give her antibiotics, but what actually happened was a big shock to us. The vet examined her and did a urine test, he then advised us that she was severely dehydrated (which we did suspect) and that her urine test indicated that she may have liver disease. We were devastated. We didn’t know what this meant for Dolly, but we knew it didn’t mean anything good. Dolly went on to spend two days at the vets on IV fluids. Whilst there they also did a blood test, which again indicated liver disease.

The next thing the vets did was refer Dolly to a specialist for further investigation. After carrying out an ultrasound and liver biopsy, as well as another blood test, the specialist diagnosed Dolly with Cholangiohepatitis, which is an infection of the gall bladder and surrounding liver tissue. He also confirmed that this has caused some liver damage. Dolly had to stay at the pet hospital for 4 days and have a feeding tube fitted to enable us to give her the nutrition, water and medication she needed. After four days Dolly was allowed to come home, with 6 different medications and a special diet.

At this point, Dolly needs ongoing care, with an extensive list of medications. She also needs regular monitoring and blood tests to check that she’s improving. The problem is that all the treatment so far has maxed out our pet insurance and we are unable to afford ongoing treatment. At the moment we are doing all we can to pay for the treatment she requires, but we need help.

That is why we are appealing to fellow dog lovers to ask for help. If there is anything you can do to help us get Dolly back to good health we would be eternally grateful.

Thank you for reading x