Hi, our names are Joe and Kerry and we’re raising funds for our little boy Rufus. He’s a golden cocker spaniel and he’s been poorly for quite a while now but the last couple of days he’s taken a real turn for the worse.

It started in July, we noticed one day that he was behaving differently, I thought that as I’d just cut the grass and he’s quite timid (he hides under the shoe rack when the window cleaner comes) that he was scared of the lawn mower, we realised soon enough it wasn’t just that so took him to the vets, they checked him over and we went home with some pain relief. The next day he was really poorly, he didn’t want to get up, his body was trembling and he looked like he was shutting down, we thought we were going to lose him. Our vets admitted him and they run blood tests, X-rays, ultra sounds, they basically did everything they could there but couldn’t find an answer so started him on antibiotics and pain relief, he really turned around quickly and we thought although frustrating to not get an answer he seemed as though he was on the mend and going to be fine. We finished the antibiotics, and he was seemingly back to normal, we had a short family break planned so went away and left him with our friends. The day before we were due to come home we had a call, they’d taken him to the vets because his trembling had started again and he looked like he was having another episode, though not as serious. They run more tests but didn’t find anything and we picked him up as soon as we could and took him to our vets, they then referred him to the specialist, luckily he wasn’t as bad as the first time, but we knew he just wasn’t right.

The specialists in internal medicine checked him over and run more tests, still no answer, we since have had a test for Addison’s and liver dysfunction as well at our local vets which both came back as fine. Luckily he’s been mostly okay in himself since the first time but there were noticeable things happening and he would sometimes have these little trembling episodes and go a bit vacant, we then went to a different specialist in neurology yesterday for an MRI scan and a spinal tap to see if they can get an answer, initially the vet thinks that the scan is all clear but we’re waiting on confirmation of this and result of the spinal tap. We brought him home and took him out of the the car and he was trembling very badly, was very vacant and not responding to us at all (normally he’s climbing up to our faces, tail wagging jumping around all over the place).

Where we are currently is that he’s back with the vet specialist and he has been admitted for overnight care because he’s not improved and he again looks like he’s in an awful amount of discomfort and won’t stop trembling.

We’ve found out that our £4,000 insurance limit hasn’t gone very far at all and we’re at a loss on how to pay for the bill we’re about to receive short of applying for multiple credit cards (I am trying to sell 4 guitars right now so get in touch if you want one). Our initial tests were £1,000, the first specialist was another £800 or so, I’ve put £750 on a credit card I’ve yet to claim back, our MRI appointment and spinal tap yesterday was estimated to be between £3000 and £3500 and todays care is estimated to be between another £3000 and £4000 on top and that’s without anything else that might come along or any treatment he may need once we do finally get an answer.

Thank you for reading our little story and if you can send anything at all it will be a huge help to us and getting Rufus back to good health (he’s only 2 years old, we hope to have many many more years with him yet)

Update - the vets have found a foreign body in his abdomen which they think is likely a or multiple grass seeds which they think has been a causing the issue this whole time, he’s going to be going in for surgery and our new estimate for the scans needed, consultations and surgery is £6,500 - £7,500 if there are no other complications.

Update - we’ve managed to scrape and borrow the deposit that the vets need to schedule the surgery and to do the CT scan before it. The scan found an abscess and grass seed between some vertebrae so the surgery will be draining the abscess and removing the seed, but it’s in a difficult place for them around his kidneys, aorta, ureters, adrenal gland. They’re confident that the surgery will be okay but there’s still a risk to him.

Update - the surgery went well, the vets are optimistic, they want to keep a close eye on him as the abscess was so close to his bladder. They didn’t find a grass seed but said that it may have been broken down and digested.

Update - he had a good night after his surgery but had a bit of a temperature at one point but he’s eating chicken and getting lots of cuddles apparently, they want to keep him in one more day to keep a close eye on him, we’re really looking forward to him coming home now.

Update - we picked him up today and brought him home, it was so nice seeing his wagging tail and happy face again, such a relief. He’s a bit sore and groggy from the surgery still, trying to get comfortable in his bed but at least he’s home now. We’re so so grateful to everyone who’s donated to help us reach our target, and want to shout out Southfields in basildon for the amazing care they gave Rufus since they first saw him.

Update - he’s had his stitches out, it was 2 weeks after the surgery as scheduled. The vet was pleased with how he’s healed and he looks to be on the road to a full recovery, he’s able to start exercising again which he’s very keen to do and it’ll be nice to see him out the house having a good run again. Thank you so much to everyone who’s donated, please help us share this as far as we can as we still have a way to go to finish raising the funds to pay back the vets and the people who we borrowed money from to get him into his surgery.