Save Winnie

Update: Winnie had her surgery. She had a tough time during the surgery and in recovery, but is now home. In a month she will have new blood tests to check her levels and to see how she's doing. Fingers crossed.

Update: Hi, our names are Debbie and Robert. We are raising money to give Winnie, a now 9 month old English Bulldog, surgery. Winnie came into our life 2.5 months ago.

We take our other dogs including our 10 year old Bulldog, to the park and we were approached by a woman who's elderly sister was gifted a 3 month old Bulldog puppy from her son and it was too much for her. We agreed to meet the puppy. We met and the puppy was just handed over to us. It turns out we are the 4th family to home this sweet puppy.

By the next day we realized Winnie had blood in her urine, blood in her stool and had very weak muscle tone. She also had never had any of her vaccinations and to top it off she has a cherry eye. We went to our vet and discovered that she has Hookworm, a UTI and that she was at least 7 months old as she has her adult teeth, but her growth is stunted and she is very under weight.

We started taking her on walks to strengthen her but around the 2nd week she suddenly became extremely lethargic or she walked around as if drunk with her head down, bumping into things. We rushed her to the veterinary hospital and after 3 days it was determined that she has a liver shunt and a foreign body in her stomach. This is a life threatening condition for this sweet little girl.

We are managing the condition chemically until her UTI is cleared up. But the surgery needs to be done soon or her liver will no longer be functioning. She also needs a special hydrolyzed protein diet.

2 months later, her UTI is cleared up but we are still trying to get rid of the Hookworm. She has gained about 4 lbs and she is much more energetic. Her muscle tone has improved, we like to say she is now puppying.

We have already spent thousands of dollars just to diagnose and treat Winnie and have been quoted at least 6- 8 thousand dollars more for the surgery. Plus she still needs a few more costly tests before she has the surgery.

People tell us we should have her put down but we cannot do it.

We are retired and cannot afford to spend 15-16 thousand dollars on Winnie's vet bills so if anyone can help we would be very appreciative.