Willa make it?

If you’ve walked around Heaton park lately, chances are you might have met Willa.

 

We adopted Willa from a vets four months ago, where her previous owners had abandoned her after being run over by a tractor at just six months of age. The tractor crushed all five toes on Willa’s back right leg and, rather than own a three-legged dog, her owners chose to leave her at the vets to be put to sleep.

 

Luckily for us, the vet working that day saw something special in Willa, and contrary to practice protocol, they had the owners sign her over to the practice, where the life-saving amputation was carried out anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

A few weeks later, we had a call from Katie’s sister, asking us if we’d like to adopt Willa from her friend who was fostering her for the vet practice that saved her. Having recently lost our dog Lucy, we weren’t sure if we were ready for another dog so soon, however the moment we met Willa we knew we couldn’t say no, and Katie made the 12 hour round trip to pick her up the weekend before Christmas.

 

 

In the first three months of living with us, Willa made amazing progress, as she gained balance and strength in her remaining three limbs, and showed us just how fast tripawd dogs can run (the answer is, very fast!). She started coming out on pack walks with Jess, and seemed to be an all round happy, vivacious and affectionate adolescent dog.

 

 

 

However a few weeks ago, Willa appeared to hurt herself when out on a walk, and for the next few weeks, struggled to bear weight on her remaining back leg. At first we thought she might have torn a muscle from racing around with Angus and the pack, so booked an appointment with our local vets to get a referral to the physiotherapist.

 

Following some X-rays of her back legs, we were given the devastating news that, rather than it being caused by a torn muscle, Willa’s pain was the result of the onset of progressive bone disease which was affecting her remaining back leg. The vet identified a historic fracture in her left hip, which predated the tractor accident, as the initial cause of the bone disease, and which now means that, when Willa walks, her hip joint and socket are effectively grinding ‘bone on bone’.

 

 

 

 

 

Obviously this is not the news we wanted to hear, as given the amount of pressure that tripod dogs put on their limbs anyway, we knew this is likely to be causing her significant pain. However the vet sent us away with some painkillers, and instructions to keep her on strict rest for a few weeks, in the hopes that this would slow the progression of the disease.

 

Unfortunately, however, at our latest appointment, we were told that a conservative approach wasn’t working for Willa, and the only option for her to be able to live a long and pain free life is for her to have a total hip replacement in that remaining back leg.

 

A total hip replacement is a big surgery at the best of times, however this is particularly the case for Willa, who is likely going to need a customised prosthetic hip, which is capable of fitting into her malformed joint socket. The recovery period is also often long and difficult for tripawd dogs, and she will be on intensive crate rest for 6 weeks afterwards, and will need regular physiotherapy after that. On top of this, our insurers have refused to cover the cost of the surgery. When a dog has one of its limbs amputated, insurers automatically exclude all remaining limbs from their policy, no matter the cause of injury or disease in those limbs.

 

Given all of this, we wouldn’t be considering hip surgery at all for Willa if we didn’t think it had a real chance of giving her a proper, full, and pain free life, and if it wasn’t for Willa’s own absolute determination to continue enjoying life. Indeed, despite what must be significant levels of pain for her, Willa is a happy, energetic, and cheeky dog, who continues to act as though she still had her full four legs, and who keeps asking to go out for walks with us and Angus whilst she’s on strict rest, and is desperate to race, jump and play with other dogs when out. The only indicator that we have as to her real pain levels are when she falls down on that back leg whilst playing, at which point her screams tell us everything we need to know. It is for this reason, and this reason only that we are even considering going ahead with the surgery, as not only do we feel that she really could have a long and happy life with it, it is so clear to us that Willa isn’t ready to give up yet. And until that day comes, we have to do everything in our power to explore all the possible options for her.

 

 

 

 

In addition to this, the prognosis for tripawd dogs that undergo total hip replacements is very good. We are confident that our vets would not be recommending this option to us if they were not also sure of the surgery’s ability to transform Willa’s life. Certainly, without the surgery, our only option will be to put Willa to sleep, as the rate at which her bone disease is progressing, it won’t take long for her pain levels to reach an unmanageable level, and the last thing we want is for her to be in any more pain than is absolutely necessary.

 

What are we fundraising for?

 

The first stage in getting Willa’s surgery underway is for her to have a CT scan, to fully assess the state of her remaining hip socket, and so the orthopaedic surgeons can develop a customisable joint for her. The cost we have been quoted for this CT scan is £3000, which is what we have set the initial fundraising target for. If we can reach this initial target, it will at least give us some idea of the viability of this surgery for Willa, before we proceed to the next stage.

 

After that, and assuming the vets give the go ahead for the procedure, Willa will then undergo the hip replacement surgery. We are being given two options for this; either she can have it done locally at the excellent Wear referrals in Durham, or she can have it done at a specialist vet elsewhere. Either option will come with an additional price tag of around £5000-7000, including her aftercare, but which won’t include any post-operative physiotherapy.

 

So in total, without the physiotherapy, we are looking at the full cost of Willa’s surgery being around £8-10,000. This is obviously a huge amount, that neither Katie nor Jess have at their disposal right now, which is why we are turning to our community for help, to see if there is any way we might be able to fundraise enough to get us close to this target.

 

Obviously there are so much bigger things going on in the world right now than one dog’s leg, and we fully recognise that, with the rising cost of living, and donations that people might be making to charities elsewhere, that our request for support might seem extravagant, and self-centred. We’re not expecting anything to come of this, however, we also know that, if we do have to put Willa to sleep, we need to do so knowing that we really did do everything in our power to save her first. Many of you will also know Jess as the face of Jess Fox & Hound, and will therefore know how much love and care she pours into the dogs she walks on a daily basis. All we want is to be able to give that same level of care to our own.

 

Therefore, if anyone would like to support Willa (and Katie, Jess and her big brother Angus) on the journey to a hip replacement, we would be so so grateful if you would consider donating to our Go Fund Me page. The first target we are setting is to just cover the cost of the CT scan. After this, we will set another target to help cover as much as the actual cost of surgery as possible. However, we don’t want to set a figure for this until the vets are able to give us a proper estimate, after the CT scan.

 

If, in the worst case scenario, the orthopaedic vets decide that Willa isn’t a candidate for a hip replacement after all, then any funds we raise we will split between the Humane Society International , which are currently supporting Ukrainians and their pets fleeing from the war, and Street Paws , a locally founded charity that provides free veterinary care to homeless people and their pets in the UK. Equally, should we manage to smash our fundraising targets, then any excess funds generated will go to the same source. Any money we manage to generate independently of this fundraiser, whether through saving, or bank loans, will be used ahead of this Crowd Funder to pay for Willa’s surgery. We really don’t want to take any more from the community than is absolutely necessary, and want to be able to be sure that we can always give back where necessary.

 

That’s all from us for now. We will keep updating you all as things progress with Willa, however we want to thank everyone in advance for their support, in helping us try and ensure that Willa will make it!