PLEASE CAN YOU HELP FREDDIE?
This is Freddie, who came to us with severe pain in both back knees, & great difficulty walking, with what, at first glance, appeared to be severe arthritis. We decided not to re-home Freddie, but to put him in a permanent foster home, which enables us to monitor his progress and also help with vets’ expenses.
As he is only two years old, we took him to the vets’ to see what could be done to alleviate his suffering. After many tests and various x-rays it was discovered that he had damage to both his rear cruciate ligaments. To give him the best chance of a pain-free life, the vets’ needed to operate on both his ligaments – an operation known as a TPLO (Tibial Plateau Levelling Osteotomy). This is an operation that is relatively recent, only becoming widely used as late as 1995. It is long and complicated surgery, but the recovery time in big dogs is that they can begin light training within 8 – 12 weeks after surgery, much quicker than the conventional ligament replacement surgery. Unfortunately, it is also an expensive procedure – costing £1,500 per knee. Together with Freddie’s fosterer, we have managed to raise enough funds to go ahead with an operation on the worst knee, and Freddie is now recovering extremely quickly, but he still needs the TPLO operation on his other knee, to ensure that he has a life free of pain & suffering - and for that we are asking for your help.
We need to raise another £1,500 by September 2010, so that Freddie can lead a totally normal, and pain-free long life.
If you would like to help – perhaps by running your own fund raising event, or just to donate a few pennies, then we would love to hear from you. You can contact us on 0845 463 0623 or email: rehoming@ceredigionanimalrescue.org.uk