Rescue Journal

teek

Carol · Nov. 4, 2014

she had her ultrasound today....not great news. while we strongly suspected an ectopic uretor because of the vets assessment from up north..it is a little bit more complicated than just that. one uretor loops all over the place before ending up in the vagina. the other uretor drains down from the other kidney into a large cyst like pocket before reaching her micro bladder. this is a severe malformation of her urological system and is a congenital defect from birth.

so for the past 9 or so years, teek has been leaking urine constantly because the mechanics of her drainage pipes are totally screwed right up.

can it be fixed with surgery?..maybe. it will be a long and complicated and delicate surgery that i bet will cost well over ten thousand dollars. can we afford it?..probably not. but if we don't do it, this very sweet and gentle dog will never get a home of her own because who wants a sopping wet, urine soaked dog?

and then there is the risk involved...teek only weighs a wee twelve pounds. this means that her uetors are very tiny and delicate...just like her. i cannot imagine trying to re-route successfully basically thin hollow pieces of thread. but the real risk is of scar tissue formation..if she develops post surgical scar tissue in those tiny thin uretors, they will obstruct, the urine will back flow into the kidneys and she will be dead.

sooo...we can play it safe, let her keep going, leaking freely with no home except saints ever in sight or we can take the risk..try to fix her and hope that she actually does survive.

i hate it when all options suck.

Comments

Carol

lol...i didn't forget to post her, i posted her lucky day on the 25th or 26th, you must have missed it.

jamie

I finally found the search button. Just wanted to post here that Teek came home with us last Saturday. She now has two saints sisters Ewok & Patches and we love her.

Bridget

i already like Teek. <3

Victoria

I LOVE Teek - she is one of my favorites. In my opinion (and strong opinion I must say) I do not agree with having her get the surgery you have described. You're right - money can be raised for this; however, it is DEFINITLY NOT WORTH the risks. Can you imagine right now that she is not in pain and could still live her whole full life perfectly happy and loving with the other dogs with a leak problem or have her possibly DIE and have her life taken from her?! That doesn't seem like the right move to me. Someone may even adopt her as an only pet or worse case scenario, she stays at SAINTS with her current family and still has the joy of visiting with people and her fur family daily. Like I said, I know it's a strong opinion and not a decision for me to make, but just wanted to put in my two cents because she stole my heart. If I didn't have 3 cats myself, I would take her in a heartbeat.

Carol

she is adorable.,,and super sweet too.

suzanne

great news... I seem to have been confused and mistakenly interpreted Nicolemc's post as being indicative of no qualified person in your area. my bad. Teek is one seriously cute dog!

Carol

hi suzanne..the surgeon we would use at can-west is highly experienced and board certified and has full access to the ultrasound results. no need for us to be looking for help far from home, can-west is only an hour and a half away from us.

suzanne

Hi Carol,
can someone email any pics they shot during her ultra sound to a board certified surgeon who might either have done a surgery like this before or at least be capable of doing this so that you can have that input as well? Also I think that if they were to do another ultrasound they can link to a grand-high-poobah surgeon on another computer elsewhere who would then be seeing it all in real time. they did that for my then newborn granddaughter... she was in a nicu in northern MD and her cardiac surgeon was in DC and he was looking at everything on his office computer in DC. putting aside the terrible reason for it, the whole process was really pretty nifty. I'm sure you have seen this a boodle of times in your experiences as a nurse

Carol

glad max is doing well suzanne. and it is not so much the money..we can raise that if we need it for her, it is more about the risk because i certainly do not want to make things even worse for her. i will most likely take her to can-west for a consult so i have all of the info to make the best decision for her possible.

Nicolemc

Sadly this is a surgery done by a board certified surgeon. The surgeon at Canwest splits her time between canwest and Montreal (I think) so she's not even there that often. The next closest place is U of Washington or a specialty clinic near Seattle. And unfortunately most places don't give much of a discount for rescue organizations.

suzanne

just remembered you recently had vet students at SAINTS. will a surgeon at their school help?

suzanne

are there any vet schools that would take her surgery on at little to no cost as a "teaching" example? I am not familiar with vet schools in Canada but there are several in our "northern tier" here in the states which would make visiting them only a semi-brutal trip for her and a caregiver. Cornell is the best here but there is a super one in Michigan too, and I'm sure there has to be one on the west coast. maybe one of the schools would want to help little Teek.
BTW, whilst at the vet today with Max (whose life was saved by Carol... he sends kitty hugs and thanks) waiting for his Cartrophen shot, I was paging through Cat Fancy and came upon an article about rescues just for seniors here in the states. What caught my eye was the mention of a group called Grey Muzzle. they are not a rescue but they raise boodles of $$$$ and give GRANTS to senior rescues. soooo, I don't know if they will give grants outside of the US but it might be worth an ask. In the last 5 years they have given just under $500,000.00 in grants. it would be nice if some of that could go to SAINTS

Carol

lol..and that is why i so love you guys! give lola a hug for us..lucky girl.

Ian and Mary

We have a leaky ancient dog (Lola from LA) and it really is not a big deal. You buy an extractor to wash any carpet accidents when you get home and everything is fine!