Lily needs life-saving heart surgery

Lily was born in Foster care on Christmas Eve along with four sisters. When Lily came in for her spay surgery this month, our Shelter Medical team discovered a grade VI heart murmur, which is the highest level. An echocardiogram, or ultrasound of the heart, determined that Lily has a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), which means a connection between two major blood vessels in her heart that normally closes at birth has remained open. When Lily’s heart tries to pump oxygenated blood out to the rest of her body, a large portion goes through this connection and back into her lungs instead of out to her body. Because of this, her heart must work harder to pump blood to meet the oxygen demands of the rest of her body.

If left untreated, this condition will cause congestive heart failure and is fatal. While surgery to close the PDA is costly, the success rate is very high, and Lily has a good chance of living a normal life post-surgery.

Lily’s Foster mom simply raves about how wonderful a puppy she is—at nine weeks she is already house trained and knows sit! Thanks to the tremendous success of our fundraising push on social media last week, we have reached our goal to cover the cost of Lily’s heart surgery! If you would like to support the care of pets in need like Lily, please click here.

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