Save Gus

Gus, journey has been crazy so far. we haven’t gone into much detail about the day it happened and what specifically happened. If your sensitive to this type of thing skip this post:

Gus was 5 months old still a baby, one thing we always thought was weird is he had no gag reflex he’d just puke straight away but besides from that he was a normal puppy. It was a normal night we’d played with Gus and did our routine of everyone coming in and saying goodnight to him kisses all over his face and a “UR SO FRICKEN CUTE!!!!!” there was no sign of anything wrong with him. gus fell asleep in my mums room. My brother woke up early hours of the morning, he didn’t know why he just had a feeling he needed to check on gus. He went into the kitchen and the cupboards were open there was measuring cups a cheese grater plastic cooking bowls that whole cupboard was a mess our door on the cupboard had broken so there was no door on it at that time. My brother found him curled up near the cupboard lethargic, he couldn’t walk, hold up his head or move, his eyes were mainly closed with eye goop completely covering his eyes he was dribbling non stop massive amounts to the point his chin was raw, it was like he was trying to find somewhere to pass away. my brother woke me and my mum up we grabbed him and ran to the car, my brother was holding his head up or he’d just flop, dribbling from the mouth eyes closed and then he started having a seizure, his eyes flickered like crazy, we got him to the vet which was an after hours they knew it was really bad, they cleaned up his eyes put a lure in his arm gave him some injections and gave us a seizure suppository incase he had another one in the car they told us to rush him to the specialist vet, still completely out of it not moving we had the vet call the specialist and have them ready asap, I didn’t take photos or videos at that time I was more concerned about him so I’m sorry I cant show u the full extent. His head and neck were so weak it just kept flopping down and the dribble was everywhere I tried to wipe his mouth as much as I could, he was barley breathing when he did built up spit would shoot out his nose I felt like that car trip was taking forever. we ran inside and gave him to a nurse she carried him straight to the veterinarian flopped over her shoulder we waited in the car all of us crying waiting for a call seeing if it was to late, they’d taken an mri X-rays blood tests the works medicated him shaved him to do tests they said he was stable but it could go either way at this point, at any point he could slip back and get worse again, they finally told us he was in congenital liver failure and explained to us, there’s 3 options, we can leave him on medication and a diet that can’t be changed at all or he will get sick very fast, but he won’t live long, and there’s a high chance he can slip back and get worse again even on medication and a specific diet. we can have a surgeon from Christchurch come up and preform surgery to fix his liver but it would cost $20,000 once healed he’d be able to start having normal dog food and being able to have treats again and live his life to the fullest or we put him down. We’d just got him and loved him so much we had no money and it was one of the hardest decisions we’ve ever had to make but we couldn’t let him die he deserves a happy healthy life so we said the surgery. Medication works well for the time being but it’s not a permanent fix with the chance of him slipping back into that really bad time, and the fact it gives him 2-4 years before he’d pass away. So I said let’s start a give a little and work our asses off, Gus has ptsd from being at the vet not being able to see us so when he got home if you left a room without him he barked and cried. We had to teach him how to walk again as well, he still couldn’t hold himself up for awhile we had a vest with a handle that we had to hold to help him stand, when he tried to walk on his own he just collapsed or fell over his feet. When we picked him up from the vet the vet said we wouldn’t usually let him go home this early but she could see the pain in his eyes as soon as he did see us with all his strength he tried to jump up and wagging that tail of his, we held him up and hugged him not wanting to let go, put him on our stomach and he licked our faces, I felt like it had been forever since I’d seen him my poor baby, I asked them how this happened and they said it’s a gene passed from a parent hence congenital. I was in shock. I have never ever had a health problem with any of my dogs before. Not only has this effected his liver but has caused seizures without his medication this would be very very dangerous. It’s difficult because his mental state isn’t exactly where it should be, he’s still in puppy phase so he knows how to sit and semi speak but doesn’t always listen he can’t catch a ball yet, and hasn’t grown to the size he should be, this has slowed those processes. At 6 months my German shepherd was doing everything on command and I was so excited to teach Gus but he can’t quite understand it yet and is still so so excited all the time, so I’m hoping soon I might be able to teach him some skills. The medication has worked really well and he can be a puppy again but it’s scary to think at any point even with medication he could slip back to that day, which I’d like to never experience ever in my life that was a very scary day. Our focus is to raise money, try as hard as we can and never give up. So my lovelies this is the full story the day everything changed