Family is desperate to save pet dog who is ‘best friends’ to girls
THEY HAVE LAUNCHED A GOFUNDME CAMPAIGN TO PAY FOR TREATMENT
A FAMILY have issued a desperate plea to help pay for vital cancer treatment for their beloved spaniel, who is best friend to two little sisters.
The family were left devastated when they were told sprocker spaniel Wiggle had the rare cancer as she and their two children, and their other dog Lolo, are inseparable.
The family, from Tutbury, have pet insurance, but have reached their £2,000 limit and are paying for treatment themselves and have launched a Gofundme page to help foot the bills.
Eight-year-old Wiggle has been diagnosed with insulinoma, which affects the pancreas and has also spread to her liver.
They fear if they wait for their pet insurance to kick in again for Wiggle to have her treatment, it might be too late.
Wiggle is one of two dogs belonging to finance controller Jude Hanratty, 46, her software analyst partner Sean Brennan, 46, four-year-old Olivia and two-year-old Rowan.
But with the cost of living crisis causing financial strain on the family, difficult decisions may have to be made in the future.
Jude said: “It was all totally out of the blue with what happened. We went up to Northumberland for a forest holiday and it was there where Wiggle started to have a seizure on the floor.
“Devastating is the word I would use to describe it. Sean managed to whisk the girls out of the way so they wouldn’t see it, and got her straight to the vets when we got home and they initially didn’t know what it was.
“But now with everything going on, Olivia is more in-tune and knows that she needs to be careful with Wiggle. She has become more aware of death now as well, which is really scary at her age because she is so little.
“The other day she was saying that she doesn’t want to die, and I’m having to remind her she’s young and doesn’t have to worry about that for a long time. It’s just a stressful situation that’s in the back of her mind.
“Wiggle, our other dog Lolo and the girls are like a little four-pack really. Wherever one is, the other one is, and that’s just how it’s been for a while now.
“Wiggle almost rounds them up so that they have to stay together whenever we are out the house. They are the best of friends.”
Scarsdale Pride Veterinary Centre, in Derby, carried out an MRI scan on Wiggle and diagnosed her fully for the family, with Etwall Vets previously helping out with her treatment.
Jude described how both veterinary centres had been nothing short of brilliant throughout the whole process, treating Wiggle as if she was one of their own.
Surgery was initially an option for Wiggle. However, it was taken off the table as the tumour in her liver was too deep to operate on, according to vets.
But with the insurance renewing in October, the couple are hoping to get chemotherapy through insurance if Wiggle lasts until then, as vets have said if the chemotherapy can be done for eight months from now then Wiggle could gain two years of good life, even with her pancreas being 60 per cent affected by cancer.
But with a CT scan setting the couple back £3,000, it is proving to be a real struggle for them.
Jude continued: “Me and my partner Sean both work full-time and it’s getting ever harder to keep up with the costs of private care. Our child care costs are anywhere between £1,000 and £1,900 a month, on top of the chemotherapy which is costing £500 a month and everything else that has sky-rocketed, it’s getting really hard.
“But it’s something that we had to do. She is integral to our family and we have to do everything we can to help her. The vets told us that if we were to wait until October when the insurance renews then it would be too late to try and start anything.
“So we knew we had to go down the private route, and that is what we have done.”
All this treatment has had a negative impact on the once super-energetic spaniel.
Jude said: “She would be out twice a day and playing around in the fields with a spring in her step as she was super-energetic and crazy.
“I think she knows now not to travel too far in case she has a wobble, and she has for sure become more reclusive and taken the joy out of her. She’s eating better than the family though at the moment.
“She’s having oats with blueberries in the morning, salmon at lunchtime and vegetables for dinner”.
For more information, or to donate, go to www.gofundme. com/f/get-wiggle-cancer-free