Hi, my name is Kristen and our family is hoping to raise money to help cover scans and surgery costs for our sweet fur baby, Finn. Finn is our youngest golden retriever. He was born on October 28, 2023 and we welcomed him into our family in January of 2024 when he was about three months old.

In early March, we noticed he began to have a limp while walking, but he never seemed to be in pain and continued on as normal. We brushed it off for a while and chalked it up to too much rough play with his older brother, Hank (our seven year old golden). After a couple of weeks passed by and the limp never easing up, we decided to take him into the vet to get checked out. In those couple of weeks, we also noticed his front left leg was gradually starting to bow out. It took us two different sick visits to finally convince them he needed a x ray. His x ray showed that he had two different breaks to his growth plate in his left wrist. The breaks in the plate are preventing one of his long bones from growing, while the other continues to grow normally, which is why his wrist is bowing and becoming very deformed. They are calling it Angular Limb Deformity. We are not aware of any injury he may have sustained. My husband and I both work remote so we are home with our animals pretty much 24/7.

We met with an Orthopedic Surgeon on April 25th. He confirmed what our vet told us and also said Finn very well could have gotten this injury as a very young pup, even before he came to us. When we took a look back at his leg in all the pictures we’ve taken of him since the day we brought him home, that unfortunately seems to be the case. This news has been devastating for us. If you know us, you know that we love our animals beyond measure and consider them our babies just as much as our two sons. We know things could be worse, but it still breaks our hearts that Finn has to endure this. The surgeon said if we do not proceed with the recommended surgery, the issue will eventually move up to his elbow, leading to more deformity, severe arthritis, and possible amputation. We are also kind of in a pickle as far as surgery timing because of his age and him still rapidly growing. His condition is just going to continue to worsen. He will not be done growing until around 12-15 months.

We want what is best for Finn and we want him to be as comfortable as possible with this unfortunate circumstance. He is so young and still has a long life ahead of him! He will need to have a CT scan about 1-2 weeks prior to his surgery so the surgeon can pinpoint exactly where and what part of the bone needs to be cut out/removed and where a metal plate needs to be placed. He gave us an estimated cost of $6,500+ after everything is said and done. We now wait to hear back about an exact surgery date.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read our story. Every single donation, little or big, is greatly appreciated. It means so much to us. Thank you. 

Let’s save Finn’s leg!

**5/9/24 UPDATE**

We finally heard back from the surgeon today and they have Finn scheduled for his CT scan on 7/22/24. The surgery will be scheduled when we leave the office that day. Typically it’s 1-2 weeks after the scan. The reason for pushing out this type of surgery is because Finn is only six months old and is not done growing yet. They don’t want to do the surgery too early and then have him just continue growing and ruin what they did to fix it. It’s complex and complicated, but we are just hoping for the best! Thank you all.