Cooper

Hi, my name is Emma. I'm a foster for Yappy Ever After and have been for the past 8 years.

 

In November 2021, I was asked to take in 2 puppies. They were 10 weeks old fox red labs. I was fostering as normal, until a suitable home was found. Very quickly Willow the female had a home. As an experienced foster, I knew that Cooper, the remaining pup was not well. Of the litter of pups, a few of them died due to do a congenital condition. Cooper had the same condition but had somehow survived. Cooper has a condition called congenital megaoesophagus (ME). This condition is where food eaten is swallowed but there are is no muscle in the oesophagus to push and contract the food down to the stomach. The food then sits in the throat area. If Cooper is not fed in the upright position, the food comes straight back out, this is known as regurgitation. Because of the condition, Cooper has to be fed in the upright position and can only be fed wet food in ball shaped pieces. He is then held upright in his chair for 20 minutes. We go through this routine 4 times a day.

 

Getting his ME under control has been a real struggle. We've had to find the correct balance of food and frequency of meals, he has to eat smooth food with no lumps or chunks of meat. He cannot tolerate any form of dry food at all. But knowing all this, took time. If Cooper regurgitates his food or is sick, there is a very high chance that the food will be reswallowed and move in to his lungs. This causes aspirational pneumonia.

 

Just before Christmas, Coopers weight plummeted to 5kg. I ran into the vet with an almost unconscious dog. He had severe aspirational pneumonia and at that point I thought we had lost him. With thanks to the vet and some fighting spirit from Cooper, I bought him home to recover and he put weight on steadily and became stronger. At the end of February, we had Cooper's eating routine and management under control. He was doing very well and we had no regurgitation at all.

 

In early March we got up one morning and Cooper had lost the use in his back legs. He was 6 months old. After searching everywhere for answers, no one could tell me why my 6 month old foster pup could no longer use his back legs. After speaking to Yappy Ever After, we decided it was time to take Cooper for specialist treatment and see if there was anything that could be done to help Cooper. His tests and examinations were completed. He had polyarthritis. This is a condition where the body and the immune system knows that something is wrong. So the immune system starts to fight. It doesn't know what its fighting, so starts attacking the joints of the body. This causes the polyarthritis. Cooper is currently on very strong steroids to try to alleviate the symptoms. He is currently 12 kg, can walk again but is not fully fit and is putting weight on steadily. His vet bill currently stands at £6000. Cooper's food costs currently stand at £46 per week. Medication costs are currently £40 per week. He is expected to make a full recovery from the polyarthritis, eventually the cost of meds will decrease.

 

Cooper will always have his ME. How long will Cooper live? That depends on Cooper! He's fighting and not giving up any time soon. As a foster family, we are trying our hardest to get him through this and giving him the best chance we can of survival. Its been tough to get this far. But its been a real fight for Cooper.

 

I would love to be able to raise this money to help him and ease the burden on the Yappy funds.

 

Thanks for reading