Hi everybody. My name is Jojo, and I’m a puppy. I’m about 3 ½ months old, and I’m a female black Labrador retriever mix. I weigh 13 whole pounds and have been told that I’m a real beauty! But nobody’s perfect, and neither am I. In fact, I have a congenital heart defect.
You see, I was born with a Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA). That’s a mouthful, but I’ll try to explain. The Ductus Arteriosus is a normal vessel in the hearts of unborn animals. It allows the circulation to bypass the lungs (since they don’t need to use them at that time). When an animal is born and takes its first little breath, the ductus closes. But not in my heart. In mine, the ductus remained open (or patent), and is causing too much blood to be shunted from one side of my heart to the other. This isn’t supposed to happen.
Eventually, my heart is likely to become overloaded by the excessive volume of blood and may ultimately fail. Actually, more than 50% of dogs with PDAs that aren’t surgically repaired die within a year. Isn’t that horrible? So you know what that means. I need heart surgery to make sure my heart doesn’t fail and so that I don’t die.
I don’t want to die! Even though I don’t have a home of my own yet, I still love life. I get to run around and play, eat snacks and get ‘round the clock love from lots of different people. Everyone here touches me and gives me kisses on my nose. I love that.
But don’t worry - the good news is I’m going to live! The Animal League put me in a program that helps sick, little guys and gals like me survive.
In this Help Me Heal program, I’m going to get the heart surgery I need to get better. And when it’s all done, I’m going to have a completely normal lifespan and live forever! Ok, ok… I’m not going to live forever, but I’m going to have a full recovery and have a long, normal life – just like dogs that aren’t sick. Isn’t that great?
Please continue to help this life-saving program. Your kindness is the true life’s blood we need to survive. Thank you so much, and I’ll see you post-op!
516.883.7575