Hi, my name is Robyn and I am trying to raise some funds for an emergency surgery my furbaby had in the early hours of this morning (29th April). The surgery was to remove a blockage in her intestines- the vet does not yet know what it was as by the time Rayne was taken into theatre, the “hard object” had moved to her colon and now it is just a waiting game until it comes out when Rayne goes to the toilet.

Raynes insurance was due to renew in September but as out baby was due in January this year, we decided to not renew the insurance (she has never had any illness or injury previously so we were not concerned for anything “pre-existing”) as we needed to save money for when I went on Maternity leave... Anyone who has ever been paid SMP will know the struggle of dropping to such a tiny amount of money compared to your usual monthly wage!

We were then going to get Rayne insured again in November when I return to work but seeing as the universe works in mysterious ways, Rayne became very poorly and we are now faced with an enormous vet bill. There is a cap on the treatment of £4500 for the first 24 hours and the vet has estimated that each additional day Rayne is in the hospital, will cost a further £800.

We have already paid £2000 of the bill upfront but as you can imagine, this is a very big expense that we absolutely are not prepared for

Any donation would be amazing and we appreciate your generosity ❤️

Timeline

Rayne started with vomiting (for 1 day) about a week ago but as with all Dalmatians, she has a sensitive stomach and it is not unusual for her to vomit for a day once every few months. She wasn’t off her food, wasn’t lethargic and was fine in herself other than the vomiting so I was not concerned. The next day she returned to normal and ate her breakfast and dinner as usual with no vomiting.

Fri 24th - Rayne ate breakfast and dinner but then spent the evening vomiting

Sat 25th - Rayne had vomited a couple of times during the night and refused to eat breakfast. We then withheld her dinner in the hopes that starving her for 24 hours would help her stomach to settle

Sun 26th - Rayne ate half of her breakfast and half of her dinner and seemed much happier in herself, she was also following me around the kitchen in the hopes of some food falling onto the floor and we thought she’d be back to being 100% by the next day

Mon 27th - Rayne refused breakfast again and vomited twice. I was now concerned and booked her to see the vet. The vet checked her stomach, pulse, heart, gums and temperature which all came back normal. The vet then gave Rayne an anti sickness injection and advise that it takes and hour to kick in and will last 24 hours. If she is sick within the 24 hours or her symptoms return after the 24 hours, then she is to be rechecked by the vet. The injection worked wonders and by the time I got home with Rayne, she had perked up loads and was very interested in her dinner!

Tues 28th - around 3pm (about 27 hours after the injection was given) Rayne started to look a bit sorry for herself and then started drooling so I rung the vets and requested a recheck appointment but the soonest they could book her in was Thursday (30th). Within the next 90 minutes she rapidly declined - she was trembling, a little unsteady on her feet and quite lethargic and this is when we decided she needed to see the vet asap but our only option was to take her to the emergency out of hours vets. Once we got there, the vet examined Rayne and took her for bloods and an awake ultrasound scan of her abdomen where it was confirmed that there was “something” in her intestines. The blood results showed that her electrolytes were abnormal and she was severely dehydrated. We had the discussion and agreed that Rayne should stay in on fluids until she is stable enough to be sedated for a full ultrasound and then surgery to remove the blockage.

Wed 29th - Rayne came out of theatre at around 7am where she had to have a part of her intestine removed as the vet could not “milk” the intestine fluid through it. I then got another update at 2:30pm where the vet advised that Raynes gut isn’t working fully as they would expect but considering the surgery she has had and also the medication she is on, this issue is explainable. Rayne also had another awake ultrasound and her stomach is swollen and Rayne is showing signs of being nauseous again so a GN tube is going to be placed to release the gas in her stomach and also have the liquid removed as necessary. The vet isn’t fully happy with how she is recovering but also isn’t “super worried” at this point. I have also rung for an update tonight (7pm) and was told that Rayne is “settled and comfortable” and the next update will come tomorrow morning to give me an update on how she has been overnight