Uki's Broken Heart Journey

We would like to introduce you to Uki, a 3 month old Pomeranian puppy.  This poor girl was from a puppy mill and was originally dumped because she has micro-ophthalmia which means she has very little eyeballs rendering her blind.  When she was dumped at a rural vet, it was also discovered that she had a major heart murmur and an umbilical hernia.  After taking her to a cardiologist, we discovered that Uki actually has 2 heart defects.  One is called “severe pulmonic stenosis” which means that flaps in a valve in her heart are thickened and it is difficult for Uki to pump blood to her lungs.  The second is called “atrial septal defect” or ASD for short.  This means that there is an opening between the two top chambers of Uki’s heart and oxygenated blood and deoxygenated blood is able to go back and forth between the two chambers.  This is a very dangerous defect and can result in congestive heart failure fairly quickly which has the potential to be fatal in Uki’s case.  These life saving surgeries for Uki are being estimated for us at around $10,000. We are unable to schedule her surgery right now because Uki is too small; her body cannot physically handle the medical equipment needed for correction.  Until we are able to schedule surgery, she is on a daily heart medication, exercise restrictions and will have several more cardiologist appointments.  Our goal currently is to fundraise while we wait for Uki to grow, get bigger and stronger so as soon as she's ready, we will have the funding to get her surgeries and pay our vet bills right away! (Photo credit goes to Simply Dog Photography)

More information about Speak For The Unspoken: SPEAK! for the Unspoken is a registered 501(c)(3) pet rescue located in the Columbus, Ohio area. We are a 100% foster-based rescue, devoted to special needs animal rescue and education. We focus our rescue efforts on special needs dogs and cats, double merle dogs born with vision and/or hearing deficits due to poor breeding practices. We believe special needs dogs can live happy and healthy lives, and until the careless breeding stops, we will continue to find these special dogs the homes they deserve. We see possibilities, not disabilities. We adopted our motto “special needs and good deeds” to incorporate all the animals outside of the ‘special needs’ category that we are able to help. We are a foster based rescue so all of the animals in our program are living and cared for in a home.