Sakari and her journey

Barbara Swansfeger is organizing this fundraiser.

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Hi! My name is BJ and Sakari is one of my Siberian Huskies.

Sakari was born just about a year ago & I had high hopes for her; an AKC Championship & motherhood like her parents & grandparents. She was well on her way with AKC points but started having some accidents in the ring & 2 very bad bladder infections. So, I looked into this & our journey began.

Both renal pelvis’ were huge as urine was not getting to her bladder and pooling in her kidneys and ureters. Because much of the urine was just sitting in her ureters and renal pelvises, she got the infections. After testing @ my local vet, we ended up at Cornell Veterinary College (3.5 hr. @ way) & found out from their first ultrasound that she had strictured ureters and that her kidneys were twice the size they should be. Only 1 had a very tiny entrance into her bladder. Cornell lasered the ureter (they could find) a pinch larger during a Cystoscopy, but could not find where the second ureter ended up. They even looked in her vagina.

Ultrasounds, Sonograms, Cystoscopy, CT Scans, Bloodwork, Meds, Urinalyses & more lead them to several conclusions, including she does not have ectopic ureters...an initial thought. Her ureters which should be thin short tubes were elongated, and twisted overstuffed sausages. It was hard to believe, but her renal values were great and normal.

After seeing the CT scan, her surgeon cleared the next day's surgery calendar for immediate major surgery for my gal. If no surgery, he believed she would be dead in 2 months. After the 4 hour operation, she was done. Both ureters were cut & reattached properly.

After surgery, she had complications from the anesthesia (which she had multiple times and for extended periods) & CT dye (which is very hard on kidneys) so they increased her IV fluids dramatically. This led to a major water weight gain (+10 # in a week). Her renal values also increased. They were normal when she arrived and now they were heading up to their peak # of 2.9-. She also quit eating. Our twice-daily calls with the Vet were becoming quite distressing.

She was transferred to Critical Care. Here there were Renal Specialists who would be closely monitoring her instead of the Surgical Staff. We are now into weeks, not days. There were times it was not only me that thought she would not survive.

Once her system was flushed out, she was started on diuretics to take down the edema. This was a very slow steady process but she started to lose weight and showed some interest in warm chicken. She was not excited about the daily blood draws to check her renal values, but they also started to come down. It was good news. And the good news continued to improve with more eating, lowering renal numbers and starting to act more like "herself".

She is finally home, healing and glad to be back with her family. She will need constant care from Cornell for who knows how long. Her next apt. is @ the end of July for another ultrasound. This is important as they will compare her kidneys/ureters pre and post-surgery. This will be telling.

They believe this is not genetic, just a rogue gene birth defect, but nothing can be positive as this is so extremely rare. The Faculty Surgeon that treated her said he had never seen anything this bad. The Resident Vets that treated her had never seen this. In light of this, I had her spayed there.

She is extremely lucky to have had such skilled vets, but it came with an extremely high cost. If anyone could help pay her huge veterinary bills, I would be eternally grateful and so would Sakari.

Love ♥️ from me and Siberian Smooches and Husky Hugs from Sakari.

Update: I am starting to groom Sakari as she is just starting to shed from nature and her hospitalization. No bath yet, but that will be coming as soon as the wound and incision heal. She seems happy to be here, go for some walks and spend time with the other Siberians. Countdown to the 31st, though. New pic @ the bottom!