Brady the Corgi’s GDV post-op care and recovery fund

Brady is Pembroke Welsh Corgi and has been our fur baby and much loved companion for almost thirteen years.

At around 10.20pm on New Year's Eve we noticed he was anxious and visibly distressed, shortly thereafter he started trying to vomit but couldn't. This didn't seem like a normal attempt at vomiting so, thinking this could be serious we called the emergency vet, told them his symptoms and that we were on our way. We arrived around 11pm and were immediately met at the car, clearly the vet thought it could be serious too. Sometime after midnight they confirmed it was Gastro Dilatation Volvulus (GDV). We had never heard of it but apparently it is the "mother of all canine emergencies" and we needed to act fast if we stood a chance of saving him. We needed to be aware of the costs though, which could range from $5,000 to $9,000. Brady has a very good quality of life and is in excellent condition for his age. We had to try and save him so agreed to to the operation and went home to wait for news.

At 3.20am we received a text saying Brady's surgery went well and he was in recovery. Later that morning they called us to say we were fortunate to have acted to quickly and that there were no complications during the procedure and that, if all goes well with the recovery we should have him home by Saturday or Sunday.

While all his vital signs and blood work show he is a healthy dog, his recovery has been slow. A specialist ultrasound scan on Thursday 6 Jan revealed he has developed mild/moderate pancreatitis (most likely as a result of the initial GDV), which explains why his pain level is higher than expected at this stage; why he is still not eating and his gastrointestinal motility is still low. To aid his recovery they have inserted a gastrostomy tube through his nose to feed him and to drain any excess gastric fluids.

In Brady's case none of these issues are life-threatening but they are adding to the time Brady needs to spend receiving specialist veterinary care while he recovers and there is a cost involved in this.

While we are able to cover Brady's initial examination, operation and recovery costs we will run out of money before he fully recovers. It isn't possible to put an exact time frame on his recovery so we have no idea what the final amount will be. Current daily care costs are approximately $700 a day and we envisage they could continue for another ten days or so. Following this there are likely to be costs involved once he is discharged.

We have come so far already and can see from our daily visits that he is still a happy dog who has an immense lust for life. We are not ready to give up on him but accept we are no longer in a position to do it on our own, so now we are asking for help to complete the journey.