This is Effie. She is a 7 month old border terrier bitch whom we bought in February. She is a wonderful dog. She likes nothing more than playing with her toys in the garden and running around with her friends. She is extremely friendly and wants to speak to everyone.

Not long after bringing Effie home we realised she was leaking urine frequently. With consultation with our vet they became concerned she may have an Ectopic Ureter. This is a medical condition where the ureter, rather than terminating at the urinary bladder, terminates at a different site. In females this is usually the urethra or vagina. It would take an expensive scan due to her size and an expensive operation to fix. Having insurance, we were not concerned about this and believed the cost would be covered. Unfortunately this is not the case. Our insurance believed this to be a pre-existing condition and therefore not covered. When we spoke to the breeder we bought Effie from we were informed that when Effie got checked over by the vet the day before we took her home, the vet had noted she had a red vulva but believed this was due to the other puppies sucking on her. The breeder did not inform us of this at the time which meant that our insurance would be invalid. We were absolutely devastated with this news. We’ve been in a battle with the insurance company over this and even went to the Financial Ombudsman but have come up against a brick wall.

We love Effie and now could never give her up, but with our first baby coming in October we do not think we can continue to let Effie leak urine around the house. Currently Effie needs to be washed several times a day and we need to ensure she has a towel underneath her when sleeping. We also have nappies she can wear. We can't currently afford the £5000 bill we’ve been quoted to fix her and are not sure what other options we have. So we’ve decided to ask for some help. If anyone is able to help us fix Effie by donating a little bit of money if you can afford to do so we will be forever grateful to you.

Thank you.