Bodhi (Bow-dee) is a dear little male golden retriever puppy who was born on 23/05/2016 with a cleft palate. He is just gorgeous and full of life. He was born by Caesarian section but his cleft was not picked up at the time. Usually these puppies would be euthanised but Bodhi was meant to live! Although he sucked from his mum he was not getting milk and was slowly starving. The breeder told me about him and I took him as a rescue pup when he was 2 days old. He was fading but I was able to do 2 hrly feeds (day and night) with a syringe and get him back on track. Being a cleft palate pup he was unable to suck from a bottle and could only have small amounts of milk at each feed. This is because if he were to bring any milk back up he could aspirate it (breath it into his lungs). This is often why these pups don’t survive. By three weeks of age he was having 3 hourly feeds during the day and 4hrs apart at night.
Bodhi has now been weaned and is drinking from a rabbit drinker and has dry puppy food. He cannot have wet food as it can get into his cleft and can be aspirated and drinking from the rabbit bottle keeps his head up so the water goes down easier. Like all little pups, he is really inquisitive, wants to discover and explore, is teething and thus he wants to put everything into his mouth. I have to be really careful and constantly supervising and offering toys to distract him.
As you know there are lots of costs involved in raising puppies. So far for Bodhi there has been his milk formula, vet visits, puppy dry food and vaccinations. However in Bodhi’s case he is going to need an operation in a few months time to close up the cleft. The operation is very expensive and as well there are specialist visits etc. I expect this will cost around $3500 (as Zander’s did). He will also need to be desexed. I am hoping to raise enough money so that I can cover Bodhi with pet insurance (approx $65 per month with Petplan) for a year or 2 if possible as well. Pet insurance won’t cover any pre existing conditions, so his cleft and any respiratory system illness will not be covered, but it would cover other illnesses and accidents. If I could raise $5000 it would be wonderful but any amount of money raised towards his costs would be so very much appreciated. Anything above this amount would go towards everyday care costs like registration, food, vaccinations etc. or towards my other cleft palate rescue dog Zander (turns 2yrs old this coming Sept) and whom I’ve raised exactly the same as Bodhi. I was fortunate enough to be able to cover Zander’s financial costs at that time. See about Zander.
I would be more than happy to pay all these costs if I could afford to, but circumstances have meant that this is not possible. I wasn’t planning on having these pups but life has brought them too me and I want to be able to give them the best chance at a great life that I can.
Thanks so much for reading Bodhi’s story and for considering donating.