Help Peanut's Life Saving Surgery

Hello, my name is Skye and I have a 5 month old Dachshund puppy called Peanut, my best friend who I am fundraising for. He is an adorable delightful little boy with great character and he is very loving and lives a happy life. He is well behaved and loves kisses and cuddles and is a cheeky little chappy! He loves to meet people and has already touched the hearts of so many people with his sweet nature! He especially loves running and if he sees a jogger or cyclist passing by he runs and tries to join them! He is a great character and makes me smile a lot! I have been through a lot of difficulties recently and Peanut has really changed my life. I cannot stress enough how much he has improved my life and how he makes me so happy!

 

This is why I am very sad to learn that Peanut has birth defect Portosystemic Shunt in his liver and will need surgery to save his life. He has had neurological symtoms such as confusion, disorientation, head circling, ataxia (walking as if drunk), as well as loss of appetite and not growing properly. He has also had strutive bladder crystals and infections and behavioural changes. I am currently struggling financially which is why I am asking for help to raise money to help Peanut, I lost my job a few months ago and have been through a very tough time with personal recent life events and having difficulties with my mental health. The whole situation has been really heartbreaking and hard on me emotionally but Peanut is strong boy as he has already proved! Although Peanut is insured, the cost of the specialist research, various scans, surgery, medications, emergency care and vet visits has mounted up to huge amounts and used most of his insurance money meaning there is unfortunately not going to be enough to cover for his upcoming liver surgery. These problems were completely unexpected and it is of course very unfortunate for Peanut that he has this problem. I am trying multiple ways to raise money, this being one of them.

 

 

The short story -

 

Since getting Peanut in January, although he was a playful and happy puppy, something was not right. We took him to the vets multiple times but was told there was nothing wrong with Peanut up until recently. One day Peanut had a very bad turn for the worst and became very ill suddenly. We rushed him to the vets and insisted that he be hospitalised and that they find out what is wrong with him. He was eventually referred to specialists and we finally found out that there is an issue with his liver called Portosystemic Shunt and it is life threatening. He has had toxic amounts of ammonia and stomach bile passing through his blood in his body due to his liver being bypassed and not clearing these toxins as it should be. Because of the shunt and these toxic levels in his blood he has experienced episodes of delirium, confusion, blindness, ataxia (walking as if drunk), vomiting, loss of appetite, aggression, restlessness and lethargy. He has also had blood in his urine and strutive urine crystals. His growth and weight gain has also been affected. He has had a diet change and is on a course of medication for 6-8 weeks and we are hoping to see good results from this allowing Peanut to have the surgery he needs. Medication is only a temporary fix and would shorten his life dramatically if we were to go down that route whereas surgery gives him the opportunity to live life to the fullest and healthiest. We have been through so much already together and Peanut really deserves to have this life saving surgery and live a happy healthy life!

 

 

The long story -

 

I got Peanut when he was 8 weeks old in January. When I went to view the puppies he instantly came over to me, looked up at me and licked me then fell asleep on my lap. I knew he was the one for me, he chose me and I chose him. I took him home with me and Peanut was seemingly okay for the first few weeks, having loss of appetite at times and episodes of biting but I thought this was normal for a puppy. Peanut has had periods of sickness, loss of appetite, was not gaining weight as quickly as he should be and we had took him to the vets and mentioned this but upon examination they felt there was nothing to worry about.

 

One evening I then noticed blood in his urine and he had been urinating frequently, we went to the vets and they suspected a bladder infection so gave me some antibiotics for him to take for a week. After he had finished this course of antibiotics he was still urinating frequently. He went back to the vets and they did a urine sample test and it came back that Peanut has strutive crystals in his bladder. He was put on a special urinary diet for a month in the hope of dissolving these crystals and solving the problem. Peanut went back to the vets and had his urine tested and was told that his urine PH had not changed at all and therefore the diet hadn't done anything for him and to put him back on normal food.

 

I began feeding him his normal food again but Peanut one day took a turn for the worst. He began walking wonky as if he were intoxicated, circling his head, would not eat or drink and had vomited. We immediately rung the vets and took him there. It was clear to us that something was wrong with Peanut so we asked the vets to hospitalise him and please find out what was wrong. The vets took Peanut and hospitalised him, upon observation they believed that he may have had an obstruction in his bowel so they did an X-ray and they was uncertain as to whether there was a blockage but they could see small fragments of what looked like bone matter, however I am a vegetarian and haven't given him any bones so explained that this was impossible. We was given the option of opening Peanut up for surgery to have a look at him or keeping him in the emergency vets for the night in fluids and painkillers to see if it naturally improved. This was a hard decision but we chose to see how he was overnight. However Peanut did not improve by morning so the decision was made to operate on him as advised by the vets. They opened Peanut up but could not see or feel anything abnormal with his organs. Therefore they decided to stich him back up rather than open up his organs as they could not identify any blockage. Looking back on this Peanut is a very strong boy because dogs with lover shunt do not have great tolerance to anaesthetic but of course he did not have the diagnosis at this time.

 

Peanut stayed overnight at the emergency vets again to be kept an eye on and I picked him up the next day and took him home. He appeared okay originally but at night time around 2.30am Peanut started crying and was very restless so we rushed him to the 24 hour emergency vets where he was given injectable painkillers and sent home with painkillers until his upcoming appointment at the vets to refer him to a specialist. We bought him home then took him to the vets for his appointment when it opened. The vets now felt it may be a neurological issue and referred him to Dick White Referrals in Newmarket that same day. We travelled there and had an extensive chat specialist vet before leaving Peanut with them describing the symptoms. They did more specialist tests on him and this is when it was discovered that he has PSS (Portosystemic Shunt.)

 

A Portosystemic Shunt is an abnormal connection between the portal vascular system and systemic circulation. Blood from the abdominal organs which should be drained by the portal vein into the liver is instead shunted to the systemic circulation by the PSS. This means that a portion of the toxins, proteins and nutrients absorbed by the intestines bypass the liver and are shunted directly into the systemic circulation. In Peanut's case this is a birth defect so he has had it since he was born. Testing revealed has had toxic amounts of both ammonia toxins and stomach bile going through his blood as his liver is not detoxifying and working as it should be because of his PSS. Upon diagnosis it is now clear why Peanut has been suffering symptoms and behaving in certain ways. He has had toxic amounts of ammonia and stomach bile going through his blood as his liver is not working as it should be. He has had episodes of behavioural changes, confusion, restlessness, loss of appetite, stunted growth, slow weight gain, ataxia, vomiting, blood and crystals in the urine, frequent urinating. These are things I had gone to the vets multiple times and mentioned but it unfortunately the PSS not picked up until he was referred to specialists at Dick White. Dogs with PSS can also suffer blindness, seizures and other symptoms so with all this in mind it is a really horrible illness to have.

Peanut also has trouble with protein metabolism because of the shunt – he can’t get rid of the waste products after breaking down protein from his diet and again this causes neurological signs, called “hepatic encephalopathy”, which includes dullness, disorientation, difficulty walking and behavioral changes.

Peanut was kept in the specialist vets for another night and we picked him up the following afternoon. He was very happy to see us and likewise we were delighted to see him. He has been given a diet change by the specialist vets to a low protein diet as dogs with PSS struggle to digest protein from meat and luckily he really enjoys this! I was told to introduces cottage cheese and tofu to his diet to help him gain some weight and get proteins that he needs in a different way to meat. He absolutely loves these new foods and goes crazy for frozen carrots He is also on medication until his upcoming surgery. The good news is we are already seeing a huge difference in Peanut since he has started this medication and he seems much happier in himself, has a great appetite, he is very playful and is now growing better! His scar from the previous operation is also healing very well. He is a great character and has made my life so amazing so it is really upsetting that he has this illness that he does not deserve.

 

However, medication is only a temporary fix for Peanut until he has his surgery. If we were to continue with medication and not have the surgery Peanut would not be expected to up to the age of 2 and would therefore not have the best quality of life. I want to be able to provide Peanut with the best life possible and for him to live many happy long healthy years with me and I would be absolutely heartbroken to think otherwise. This has been an extremely difficult time for us. There have been lots of tears and sadness but I am so happy to see improvement in Peanut but know that this will not last long with only medication which is why surgery is so important. Although he is only a young puppy surgery gives the best prospective for him to be able to live his life to the fullest and a normal expectancy. As mentioned before, Peanut is insured but because of all the expensive vet fees, medication, overnight stays, x-rays, tests, operations etc this has already used a huge proportion of his available insurance unfortunately.

 

Peanut lives a happy quality of life and we have been assured by the specialist get that he is in no physical pain but however has been suffering mentally with symptoms. This is why it is so imperative for Peanut to have this surgery so that things do not worsen as he would struggle with symptoms still on medication and have a short life expectancy so with surgery hopefully the liver shunt problem can be solved. He should be able to have the surgery after he has finished his course of medication in a few weeks time when we speak to the specialist again.

 

 

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Thank you so much for taking the time to read Peanut's story. It means a lot, if you are not able to donate then something as simple as a share to help raise more awareness is also appreciated. If you are able to donate then I cannot thank you enough, every penny counts literally! Even a very small donation of £1 makes a difference if enough people see Peanut's story!

 

If you would like any further information about anything then please do not hesitate to contact me. If you would like to see more photos of Peanut and what he gets up to in his life, he has Instagram which is @peanutdachshundboy

 

Thanks again,

 

Peanut & Skye ❤