We are fundraising to help cover the vet fees/ costs and cremation services to bring our beautiful boy Malakai home.

We had Malakai from birth, as we owned his mum too and my dad owned his brother Smudge. From a litter of 6, we are so grateful for the amazing 13 years Malakai gave us- no matter how long he could have lived it would never have been close to enough.

Malakai has always been the best boy, and so clever (regardless of just us being biased!). From a young age, he was amazing at scentwork- you could never hide from him no matter how hard our two daughter may have tried!

He completed Puppy Classes and the Kennel Club Good Citizen Award with flying colours- always friendly, always well behaved when out and about. We followed up his training, after seeing how well he excelled in scent work, with a trainer who had trained dogs for Surrey Search and Rescue. He always hit his targets (even when short cutting air scenting rather than following a trail), and no matter the terrain he was always on point.

He suffered a pulled cruciate ligament sadly while playing at his favourite spot in Oxshott wood (rabbit hole), so we moved away from the idea of Search and Rescue as such, and focussed more on Dog Tracking.

He has helped numerous dogs home with the wonderful work and support from DogLost Surrey, and I’ll be popping up a few reviews he had from his time helping others home. We also have some training videos too which are fantastic to watch and we were and still are so proud of how he was ready to help at a moments notice no matter the day/ time or place.

As he moved older, he slowed down and we stopped the tracking and focussed on him enjoying his golden years. He enjoyed sardines, cooked liver and salmon oil (for his joints!) best, but would never turn down a sprat or a sneaky dropped roast potato.

This last week as a treat we got him a usual knuckle bone to have- he regularly enjoys these over a long time and was great at keeping his teeth healthy and the tartar down that he started getting with age. We noticed on Sunday his gums had started to ooze, and by Sunday evening he was bleeding at the gums. We called up the lovely NSVE vets in Molesey for advice- but as he was still his usual perky self and eating and drinking fine, we agreed to monitor overnight and book him with usual Walton Road Vets vet Yvonne Monday. Monday came, and he was bleeding a bit more. We had a thorough check, slight temp, gums sore. He was prescribed antibiotics to cover potential infections and painkillers in case he was simply masking the pain from us. We were all happy with this and he came home generally fine except for the bleeding at the gums line, and he had his treat of cooked liver (with lipids for joints) courtesy of my dad, although with his antibiotic and painkiller in.

As I mentioned, my Dad had owned his brother Smudge from birth, who was the most amazing big boss after their Mum Hollie. Sadly, due to a lymphatic cancer, we lost Smudge in January after a fairly quick decline in health. At the time, we covered all these costs for my Dad from our emergency funds- he had to undergo full biopsy of lymph nodes and steroid treatments afterwards. This came close to the £2000 mark after the surgery and the couple of months of palliative care.

As such, we are two months later and are absolutely floored and shocked by Malakai’s sudden passing, which is why we are asking for help to cover his costs.

Overnight on Monday, I got up to check him about 1am, and noticed he was still oozing a noticeable amount of blood and the side of his face and swollen. I believed and hoped an abscess that may have needed draining, so I stayed up all night with him to keep an eye on him. By 5am, the bleeding I felt had gotten worse, and I noticed a sore opening up on the outside of his cheek- he had blood in his drool so initially it was hard to tell if the blood was still only from his gums. I gave him a clean and saw a sore- this turned out to ulceration which we believe now he may have opened with his paw perhaps.

Bang on 8.30am this morning, Tuesday, I was on the phone to Walton Road Vets, explaining I felt he was worse and they agreed he needed to be bought it.

We were back down by 9.30am, and the deterioration from just 24hrs was plain to see. The swelling was significant and he was drooling blood constantly. Yvonne, as always, gave him a thorough checking. He temp had spiked but we still couldn’t see a clear reason for what was happening so it was agreed he needed to go in for sedation (rather than full anaesthesia at his older age) to give the area a proper clean and really check out what was happening- and potentially lance and drain any abscess found. We agreed to blood tests, and to importantly rule out the fatal Alabama Rot which has been reported in places in Surrey.

By 12pm, just before I was planning to catch up on some sleep, we had a phone call no owner ever wants to hear. The blood tests showed that he had no coagulation in his blood, and his platelets were so low they couldn’t be read and he was seriously anaemic. This was the pre-op bloods- we hadn’t even checked his mouth and gums yet. Alabama rot was ruled out. We were warned that prognosis was not good but possibly had options around blood transfusions and then steroid treatment to help inflammation. We ended the call with Yvonne preparing to carry out the sedation and check on his mouth to hopefully see if it was an acute condition that could potentially be resolved. We’ve been with Yvonne for over 15 years- we have complete and total trust in her as a vet and she knows all our pets literally inside and out- we could never ask for a kinder vet in times like these who know all our family- they looked after all our other family dogs (his brother and mum, and our relative dogs at the Ashley Vet branch in Walton).

We had the devastating call at 1pm, and honestly I’m certain I cannot remember everything as my heart was just ripped out from me. My little shadow, my litter finder who ALWAYS found me wasn’t going to be coming home.

Further bloods and examinations showed he was seriously unwell- he just hadn’t been symptomatic (he even jumped for Yvonne when we were there this morning). He clearly had complete failure in blood clotting, and he was getting worse- there wasn’t even an open wound as such they could potentially stitch. Worse, we understood what his fur had been hiding. Malakai had the most beautiful and unbelievable thick double coat. Always glossy and clean, he enjoyed grooming with Going to The Dogs, and had a groom only a couple of months back, if that. When Yvonne had to shave for a blood test from an artery on his neck, she found extensive bruising. From small to almost pinprick, the clotting problem had been hiding away under his fur, and bruising my beautiful boy without anybody knowing. Sadly, he was similar to septic crisis, and even a gentle bump could be devastating internally. He was such a high risk, there wasn’t even unknown high risk of fatal haemorrhaging even from a car ride.

With his most exceptional life and love he has given us, we couldn’t bear even a slight risk he could suffer no matter how well he may have tried to hide things. This potentially had been a condition that had been developing with his age, and we couldn’t bear to ask him to continue being so brave and loving to try and get him home for the evening- the risks of sudden death (and suffering) were just too high.

Collecting our eldest from University and our youngest from school, we made preparations to say goodbye this afternoon, along with my Dad.

Malakai enjoyed his final sleep, being cuddled by his two best younger owners (who he hated being out of his sight!), my husband and I and his Granddad, with all the kisses and good boys we could possibly say.

After his amazing life, we are hoping that we can ask for the kindness of those we love, and those we don’t know we love yet, to help with the costs from this. As I’ve said, we could never leave a family member suffering so our emergency fund was rightly used to let his brother rest, and we ask for help to now lay him to rest, no matter how small that help may be. After helping so many lost dogs to come home, we want to bring him home as soon as we can to rest can, where we have his Mum, and his brother.

We say goodbye knowing he knew he was loved out to the very SECOND he went to rest, and know he’s already found some tennis balls to chew with this family over the rainbow bridge.

Sleep well my best boy xxx

We are raising the costs of treatment yesterday, medication, investigations and treatment (sedation etc) from today and the euthanasia cost. On top of this, we would love to have an indivisible cremation with his ashes to come home, and two ash keepsakes for each of our daughters xx

Thank you for reading, sharing, and donating when you can xx