Narla has made my life... and now I need to save hers!

Meet Narla - Here she is at her birthday party this year...

She is the most gorgeous, sweetest girl who has been through so much in her short life. She is the only family I have in the country and is my entire world so I will do everything I can to get her the help she needs.

After rescuing her in December 2016 when she was (thought to be) 11months old, I tried to make her life the best I could. I got her infections cleared up and her coat in good condition. We joined a play park and went on trips away. She gave me a reason to keep getting up in a morning and made me smile as soon as I saw her fluffy, smiling face.

Disaster first struck in summer 2017, when her cruciate ligament snapped in her knee. She was so strong and recovered just in time for her 2nd birthday party - it broke my heart that she didn’t have a 1st birthday party as her previous owners didn’t know her birthday, so I made sure it was a special celebration.

After only a few short weeks of walking and being able to chase squirrels in the park, Narla suddenly stopped walking! Three of her legs were totally immobile.

After several weeks of different investigations, she was diagnosed with elbow dysplasia in both elbows. She had her second surgery in January 2018 to remove fragments of shattered bone from her deformed elbow joints.

She got through the rehabilitation again and I hoped this could have fixed her legs for good. Until May 2018, when she stopped walking again. My dreams of Narla playing like a normal 2 year old were destroyed.

I took her the length and breadth of the country to try and find a solution to her suffering. Nobody could help!

After 9 months of pain management and being able to walk, I let my hopes build... then in March 2019 she had another relapse and stopped walking again. Her front right leg just hung lifeless and she cried when trying to walk...

April 2019, I eventually managed to get her to a well known brilliant vet. We were finally given a possible solution to her pain. Finally, a ray of hope that she could play like the young dog she is.

However, after the months of medication, consultations, surgery and investigations... her insurance limit was almost gone. Despite insuring her for £7K per condition and checking that legs were not treated bilaterally, the insurance found a loop hole and treated both elbows as one condition due to them being diagnosed at the same time!

Heartbreakingly, this has left me with only two options:

I leave her as she is and manage her pain. Whilst she is mainly happy, I still watch her struggle and she is currently still limping.

Or I raise the £20k needed for the elbow resurfacing treatment that can only be done by one vet in the country.

I don’t think I can live with the first option! I can’t look at her everyday knowing there is an alternative out there and I’m not trying to do it. I’m a high school teacher, so don’t have the money myself right now. I’m planning a year of fundraising events in Hull and to remortgage my house in the summer.

If I can raise the £20K, her surgery should take place in Spring/ Summer 2020 and then she should be able to play just in time for her 5th birthday party!

Please donate whatever you can, or a little each month, to help put an end to a very long, painful journey! If you can't afford to donate please share with everyone you know and get Narla's story out there.

In the event that we don't raise the £20K for the major surgery, I will use any money raised for physiotherapy and steroid injections into her joints. This will help manage her pain. I won't make this decision until I have tried everything and done as much fundraising as possible.

To keep up to date with fund raising events and how Narla is getting along please follow her on Instagram @Narla_the_ Chow

UPDATE OCT 2020:

After Narla's scans last year showed that her bones had crumbled and she couldn't have the surgery we had planned for, she has been having STEM cell treatment. The treatments involve injecting her own cultivated STEM cells and Hyaluronic acid into her joints, which greatly improved her mobility for around 6 months after each treatment. We even had a christmas miracle, as the clock struck midnnight on Christmas Eve, Narla came up the stairs! For the first time in her life she was able to sleep next to me and showed real signs of improvement. Remaining realistic, we knew Narla could never be a normal dog but the periods of walking were much longer than the periods of struggling.

However, in July 2020 (when the world was already bad enough) Narla got up too quickly and broke her right cruciate ligament - her last remaining good leg was now also broken. She had surgery to repair it but after three weeks of recovery she stopped walking again. Despite regular physio sessions, this time, she hasn't recovered to a level I would want for her. She is being pushed in a pram and only gets out of the pram for a small amount of time in the park before getting back in to go home.

It is her 5th birthday on Sunday, the time I had originally hoped her surgeries would be over. However, tomorrow, 29th October, we are going for another round of STEM cells in Surrey. The vet will inject into all four legs, front elbows and hind stifles, in the hope to give her the boost to recover enough to walk on her own for longer than 2 minutes.

All I want is for her to have a pain free, happy life... fingers crossed the STEM cells tomorrow work their magic and maybe we can have another Christmas miracle this year.

Thanks for reading xxx