Chloe's family were just beside themselves. They had just adopted a 2 legged playmate for her when she hurt her knee. She couldn't play with her new human and she couldn't even go on her therapy dog visits to nursing homes!
When Chloe went to her regular vet for ACL surgery in April they found they couldn't proceed with the procedure because they were unable to achieve a comfortable plane of anaesthesia on her. Upon examination the pneumothroax (which is free air in the chest) was revealed as well as collapsed lung lobes. They took off much of the air with a syringe and catheter. She was sent home to come back for a recheck in May.
She was referred to a specialist at that time. The cause of her problem was probably a ruptured bulla - a large air space in the lung tissue that can cause weakening in the wall of the lung. Treatment for this is a thoracotomy to identify the source of the leak and removal of part or the entire affected lung lobe... The greatest problem of not treating her is that significant portion of her lungs are collapsed and therefore not performing oxygen exchange. This leads to dyspnea and exercise intolerance and probable collapse of other lung lobes... This is a must have surgery to keep Chloe alive.
Chloe's family heard about about Labrador Life Line and asked for help. Thanks to you and your generous support of LLL, Chloe will get more help for her lifesaving surgery!
Chloe sends you her thanks too!