The Not-So-Great Follow Up
16 March 2022
Hi everyone and apologies for the long gap between updates - things have been rather chaotic recently and we've been waiting to hear from the team at Massey to see where things stand with Ziggy.
Unfortunately a few weeks ago Ziggy had another seizure which has, after more tests, led to the conclusion that his surgery to close the portosystemic shunt at the beginning of this year, which so many of you helped to make happen (amazing folk you are), was not successful. Today is in fact his second birthday and this is certainly not the present we had hoped he would be getting.
Basically our options now are to medically manage Ziggy for the rest of his life, however long that may be, or possibly attempt another surgery to try to close the shunt for a third time - we are devastated that this is even something we have to consider again, as many of you who have been on this journey with us since he was a puppy will understand.
Massey have suggested another option would be to take Ziggy back to surgery and use intraoperative fluoroscopy to try to find an alternate safe way to access the shunt and ligate (close) it but this is still not without some risk. Any further surgery will be more invasive than the last though which means more risk, more trauma and longer recovery for the wee bugger. And, again there would be no guarantees of success.
We need to discuss this further with our own vet to figure out where we go from here and what is best for Ziggy. In the meantime we are back to medical management which is keeping his symptoms under control - Ziggy is still a happy dog who gives us so much love and so many laughs.
Once again, we want to extend a huge thanks to you all - your support helped us get through the last few months and despite the unfortunate outcome, Ziggy is still bouncing along, blissfully unaware of the poor hand he has been dealt. We'll keep doing everything we can to make sure he can live his best life!
- Ziggy, Steve and Amanda
