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I need to tell you all about something that happened here at Small Paws® Rescue. And I’m just going to tell you what it is.
If you’ve been here with us for any length of time at all, you know that we do everything medically for each one of our rescued Bichon, before they are adopted.
Sure, we’ve taken some heat for this policy.
Some people over the years have told us that we do too much.
That OTHER rescues get away with just the basics and why are we spending so much on each dog.
I’m going to tell you why.
If it was a dog that I was adopting, I’d want to know that everything that needed to be done, that COULD be done, for my new dog, WAS done.
It’s why we have a pristine reputation, and have for the last 27 years.
All of us give it our all. Board Members, Team Leaders, and our wonderful volunteers all across the country.
A few months ago, we took in a precious little 2 year old Bichon near Gilbert Arizona.
He came from the shelter, and was found as a stray with a bandage around one of his front legs.
We named him “Gibbs”, because he looked like a “Gibbs”.His new Moma has named him Wilkie.
She flew down to Arizona from Missoula, Montana, to pick up her darling new boy.
We had seen an occasional limp, so of course we took him to the vet.
They told us that x-rays showed nothing wrong and gave him a health certificate to fly home with his new Mom.
And she is a wonderful Bichon Mom and long time Small Paws® Rescue volunteer! She had two Bichons of her own before adopting Wilkie, AND she is fostering one of our rescues, now.
When she got home with little Wilkie, immediately she noticed him limping and his front leg was hot. His pad was hot and swollen.
She let us know right away.
I told her to take him to her vet, who told her he needed to get to a specialist, and soon.
I know this is what you would have wanted us to do, so I told her we would pay for what he needed, as she had just adopted him and if something was wrong, our vet had missed it.
Well, our vet missed it. But several veterinarians and specialists have said that what is wrong with him is incredibly rare. Most vets would have missed it.
In over 17,000 rescues, we have never even heard of this.
I’m just going to tell you what we learned after doing a CT scan of his leg.
Wilkie has something called AV Fistulas.
What is an AV Fistula?
Basically, an arteriovenous fistula is an abnormal, low resistance connection between an artery and a vein. If large enough, the fistula may cause a significant fraction of the total cardiac output to bypass the capillary bed, making it so that the tissues receive little or no oxygen. The heart, in turn, tries to compensate for the lack of oxygen by pumping blood out to the body at a faster rate, which may lead “high output” congestive heart failure.
Some of his veins are tangles together. Not good.
The surgeons feel that this was not an injury, but rather congenital, a birth defect.
There is a procedure called embolization coiling, that is done by only two Veterinary Vein surgeons in the country,
If Wilkie had that procedure, there is a 75% chance of success. There is also a chance that it would have to be redone, maybe even several times.
We asked our surgeons to look at the CT scans and give us their opinions.
Their opinion was that it is safer to amputate the leg, than to risk the other procedure.
They said that this is so rare, that when it does come up, people usually choose amputation for that reason.
So, I’d like to tell his new Mom, that we will pay for amputation.
This would be to save his life from congestive heart failure, one of the symptoms of this very rare disorder. He just turned two years old.
It’s not a normal amputation, like we have done hundreds of over the last 27 years.
And we know that three legged dogs do great. It doesn’t affect them mentally, like it would us.
BUT, it HAS to be done by a Board certified surgeon, who will see the abnormal vein structures.
The cost for this is going to be between $3500-4500 dollars.
From: SentinelVSE Info <info@sentinelvse.com>
Date: August 14, 2025 at 9:58:15 PM MDT
Subject: Wilkie Estimate
The general estimate for Wilkie’s surgery is around $3500-4500. This is just a general idea of cost and surgery could end up being above or below this depending on the circumstances. Thank you!
Sentinel Veterinary Specialists & Emergency
1704 S Reserve St
Missoula, MT 59801
Phone (406) 218-2800
Fax (406) 218-2803
info@sentinelvse.com
This is with a 25% rescue discount which is a huge discount for them to offer.
Plus, we had the expense of the CT scan, which was $2500.00.
All in all, we need $6,500.00 to take care of him.
This has never happened to us before.
We need to help little Wilkie.
We need your help.
Also, we raised funds for little Blaze in PA. to have his torn CCL (Like our ACL) repaired.
It was supposed to be $5000.00
Yesterday, he went in to have this surgery and the surgeon found something else.
A luxating patella that is worse than those of normal Bichons.
His knee cap on the same leg as the torn CCL will NOT go back into place causing a hard limp.
It too has to be surgically repaired. They are wanting to do this TODAY.
The addition cost is for $1622.25, on top of what we have already raised.
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