Help Buddy Get His Joint Procedure

Hi, my name is Fantasia. I am Buddy's mom/owner.

Buddy is a 6 month old boxer/lab mix. He went through a rapid growth phase recently and is almost 80 pounds and larger than our Catahoula/Pit mix.

Recently, Buddy was diagnosed with Osteochondritis Dissecans (also known as OCD) which is a degenerative joint disease. It is believed that OCD is caused by the rapid growth phase, among many other things but nothing is a 'confident' cause.

"The term osteochondrosis refers to an abnormal development of the cartilage on the end of a bone in the joint. Osteochondritis dissecans (OCD or OD) is an inflammatory condition that occurs when the diseased cartilage separates from the underlying bone. It most commonly affects the shoulder joint but the elbow, hip, knee (stifle), or hock (tarsus) may also be affected."

From how it was explained to us, parts of the cartilage in Buddy's shoulders joints is breaking off and free floating between the bones. This can and will cause Osteoarthritis, it is essentially walking with gravel between your bones. It is worse in his right shoulder than his left but present in both. It is also suspected to be in his knees (stifles) but there is not a confirmation on those yet.

He struggles to even go on very short walks with me. He wants desperately to run and play like any normal puppy but it causes him pain to do so. He is pain management and sedation to try and help him heal up as much as one can, but we have been told he will need a procedure to ever be somewhat 'normal' again.

He needs what is called arthroscopy which will go in and remove the diseased cartilage from both shoulders. If the case is severe enough, he may need a more invasive surgery to fix what's needs to be fixed. We haven't even been able to see a specialist yet because it is has been hard to find someone around us that does the procedure and we honestly can't afford what they're quoting us. They want $200 alone just to see us.

I have been roughly quoted 4k-6k per joint and told to do it ASAP... I'm not sure I know anyone who just has accessibility to that kind've money that fast. It has hit us at a time where money is very rough and we have a lot of bills. We are doing our best but we are also facing a $730 bill from his x-rays.

The funds received will be used for his care and towards getting him back on track to being a normal healthy puppy, with the procedure needed. We understand that this is a condition that will never be cured and there will be the long term care of it all and are fully prepared to handle that ourselves. It is just hard right now to know that we cannot assist him immediately and that it could worsen his future from the damage done now.