About the Campaign

He’s only a little over a year old,

but his liver is failing… fast!

He’s just a year and a half old!

It is a birth defect. Lying dormant, and then suddenly becoming a problem at 17 months of age. An intrahepatic shunt, basically a hole in his liver. Put simply, a liver shunt is a birth defect where blood bypasses the liver and is not processed.

Lucas is 17 months old now, here he is as a puppy:

Now here is the problem for Lucas, his is inside the liver. This is the worst kind, intrahepatic. In fact until recently there was no surgery to fix this for dogs. But modern medicine can work miracles, and there is now a procedure, performed only at a few places in the USA, that not only fixes the shunt, but has a very high success rate!

Lucas’s owner, Khoa, got him as a puppy. As he grew up it turned out that Lucas has a birth defect with his eyelids, requiring surgery that Khoa paid for, at nearly $2000. You can see Lucas recovering from that procedure here:

At the end of October Lucas started acting strange. It came on quick. He seemed a little out of it at times for a couple days, and then suddenly he was walking in circles, and then bumping into walls. He was zoned out, and looking like he was on drugs or poisoned…. which in a way he was. His liver wasn’t processing his blood, and toxins were building up!

Lucas went to the vet. They did a lot of tests, including an expensive CT-Scan, and discovered the shunt. Khoa spent over $4000 on this. And here is the thing about Khoa, he is a student! Khoa attends a Master’s program at North Carolina State University. He doesn’t have that much money, and has already had to get credit to pay for Lucas. Now comes the surgery, and it will be over $10,000.

There is some good news! Lucas will have the procedure at the North Carolina University Veterinary Hospital, and the school is providing a grant of $3000. That’s a big help, but it is still a lot of money to get Lucas the life saving surgery he needs. He is now on prescription food and getting medications to stabilize him temporarily. He is stable now, but needs surgery in the next month or two, if he stays stable.

With our fundraising campaigns we hold all the donations, and pay them only to the veterinarian when the procedure is performed. The owner receives no money. It is like donating directly to Lucas! And if the surgery is not done, we will refund your donation. We deduct no fee from your donation, 100% goes to Lucas. And we have verified this case, and you can check the estimate below. If you can help Lucas get the life saving surgery he needs, please donate in confidence now, thank you!! 🙂

Vet estimate (click to enlarge):