Saphie, our very small 5 year old Staffordshire Bull Terrier is in recovery following surgery in August.

She has always snored (very loudly!) and panted a lot on hot days but on a morning walk in July last year she suddenly developed acute problems breathing and collapsed.

An examination and scan at our local vet showed that she had suffered from a heat shock, had a collapsing trachea and a slightly enlarged heart.

Saphie was referred to a specialist vet, where a cardiac echography and laryngoscopy found that the problem wasn’t with her heart, she had an elongated and thickened soft palate which was obstructing the upper airways and makings it very difficult for her to breathe properly.

He recommended a restricted exercise routine, weight loss and surgery during the winter, when it would be cooler and easier for her to recover.

In December, we took her for the surgery but it didn’t go as planned. When under anaesthetic Saphie began drooling badly and then vomiting so she had to be woken up and was unable to have the surgery. The vet didn’t understand why she had such a reaction to the anaesthetic, as she had been given no food for over 24 hours. Our hearts sank when he said that given her reaction he wouldn’t like to try the surgery again.

An action plan was made to try and manage her condition, which involved keeping her weight low and, when the warmer weather returned, restricting her excercise, activity and excitement levels to see how she coped. He gave us the name of another specialist vet and veterinary hospital, about 2 hours drive away, who we could consult if she needed further intervention.

And this is where WECare comes into Saphie’s story.

From May to July I went to Sri Lanka to volunteer for 9 weeks with the CNVR program.

It was a privilege to be part of such a professional and dedicated team of wonderful people who work tirelessly to improve the health and well-being of the street dogs.

When working in recovery and discussing Saphie’s problems and the difficulties she had with the anaesthetic I had the opportunity to show her laryngoscopy photos and video to some of the amazing volunteer vets.

Everyone agreed that there was no question about it, Saphie’s severely restricted airways meant that for her future health and well being she really needed the surgery. We should take her to the specialist hospital and try again. So, on our return from Sri Lanka, we contacted the veterinary hospital, who, after having reviewed her history, were confident to book her in for surgery.

We dropped her off on Monday and had a very anxious couple of days. Fortunately, this time the surgery went very well and on Wednesday we were able to collect our little girl and bring her home to begin her recovery.

We are pleased to say that Saphie is recovering extremely well and as a bonus she no longer snores, so we get a better quality of sleep too!

I’m sure that anyone who knows Staffordshire Bull Terriers will appreciate just how difficult it is to try and keep them quiet, inactive and stop them from getting excited! It has certainly been a challenge, especially now that she is feeling much better, but we are doing our best to keep her on the recovery program!

She has been doing short on lead walks but now her activity level can be increased and when she is fit enough Saphie is going to join “The Dog Jog”.

She is in training to do a “surgery to 5k” off lead walk, on our local forest tracks, by the end of October, when hopefully she will be back to full fitness again.

It’s only because of the great advice from the vets at WECare that we had the confidence to try Saphie’s surgery again and now have a much happier little girl with a healthier life ahead of her.

As a big thank you, Saphie is joining the pack to do her little bit to give something back to support Janey and the WECARE team on “The Dog Jog” in raising funds for the new hospital so that more dogs can receive the veterinary care that they need and live happier and healthier lives too.