Saving Willa

Hi! I’m Willa. I am a 6 month old Golden Retriever. We just found out I was born with a congenital liver shunt (congenital portosystemic shunt). My liver has an abnormal connection between a portal vein and another vein, allowing blood to bypass, or shunt, around my liver. This means that toxins are released into my blood stream rather than being filtered out by my liver. My liver is smaller than normal and has a hard time processing protein, which means I am currently on a special liver diet. I first went into the vet hospital when I was 9 weeks old with pneumonia. My mom and dad spent a lot of money for the best care, thinking once the pneumonia was gone, I would be all better. When I was about 3 months old, I was really tired all the time, I had no appetite, and I didn’t have any puppy energy. I went to the vet hospital again and they suspected that I had a liver shunt, which makes me really tired and more susceptible to getting sick. After a lot of blood work, I had an ultrasound that confirmed the liver shunt. The only thing that will make me better is surgery. Without surgery, my prognosis is not good. I won't be able to live very long without this surgery!

We met with the surgeon October 3rd. He said that once I have the surgery, I will lead a normal and healthy life! I won’t need a special diet anymore and I will have lots and lots of energy! They will have to do a CT scan to pinpoint the shunt. Then they will have to order a custom stent and coils to close off the shunt. The CT and surgery are a lot of money! My pet sitter and biggest fan told my parents that I am the cutest, sweetest, and smartest girl and she knows people would want to help me! She and I are setting up this go fund me to ask for your help! I want to get big and strong so I can be with my mom and dad for a long time!

Attached are lots of pictures of me (I know, I’m so cute) as well as the estimate from the vet for the Ct scan and the surgery. Thank you so much for reading about me. I hope that you will consider donating to my fund and sharing my go fund me! If you have any questions, please ask! My parents and my petsitter love to talk about me!

Parents: Marc and Morgan Vigil

Petsitter and Doter: Naomi Quinn