Help Otto get his Heart Surgery!!!

Hi! My name is Danielle Pollack. I am a local veterinarian that spends time working as a volunteer veterinarian at Orphans of the Storm Animal Shelter located in Riverwoods. Let me tell you about my dog friend Otto and explain how you can help!!

Otto is a handsome 4 1/2 year old pit bull mix. He was given up by his previous owner for unknown reasons. They knew since he was born that he had a very loud heart murmur. Murmurs can mean many things in veterinary medicine and the loudness does not correlate with the severity of heart disease. His previous family did no follow up to see if anything could be done for his heart condition, which is likely congenital (he's had since birth).

When I was volunteering there in October when he came in, I listened to his heart and recommended that an ultrasound of his heart be done to see what was causing the murmur and see if anything could be done about it, if he needed heart meds, and if it would shorten his life expectancy. The shelter paid to have this done.

Otto was diagnosed with a narrowed pulmononic heart valve- the narrowing of this valve causes blood to be pushed back into his heart (instead of out of his heart) at a high velocity. It has already caused stretching and thickening of his heart. There is a non-invasive (NOT OPEN HEART) surgery and medications that can help. We immediately started him on medications but have not had the funds to do the surgery. The surgery involves using a balloon-like instrument to stretch the valve to normal size. This is done at a cardiologist so it is expensive. We plan to have it done at Veterinary Specialty Center in Bannockburn. We were quoted approximately $5000! Since he is an extremely friendly pit bull and highly adoptable, we have decided to fundraise for his surgery. He already has his favorite volunteer that is willing to foster him after his procedure. The prognosis is possible for him to have his heart disease improve and he could potentially live a normal long life! If this surgery is not done, most dogs only live to middle age and develop heart failure. PLEASE HELP US WITH OTTO'S SURGERY so he can live a long normal life.

If you are willing to donate anything at all, it would be greatly appreciated. For every person that donates, I will send you via mail an "Orphans of the Storm" rubber wrist band so you can show your support. Thanks for listening! ALL PROCEEDS WILL GO TO OTTO!!! Let's do this!