Ivy's Hope
Ivy currently resides at Blackford County Animal Shelter in Hartford City, IN. She arrived in our care in December of 2022. Ivy was living outdoors and in a terrible state. She is still in our care and has become the sweetest most loving girl. She deserves a chance of a normal life.
When Ivy came to the shelter back in December, we noticed blood on the floor of her kennel. Upon further inspection we discovered that Ivy had an irritated vulva and that blood was dripping from her vaginal region. She was seen at a local vet clinic who did exploratory surgery and recommended that Ivy be seen by an advanced clinic. Thanks to our generous supporters, we were able to raise the funds needed to perform a CT scan to better determine her medical condition. It has been determined that Ivy has a birth defect called Ectopic Ureters. Dogs have ureters which are tubes that carry waste in the form of urine to the bladder. In a normal dog, the ureters connect to the bladder from the kidneys and the bladder fills up with urine and is relieved when the bladder is full. In Ivy's case, her ureters connect further down below the bladder. Urine does not make it into her bladder, instead it is a random drip from the vaginal region as it is formed. Dogs can live with this medical condition and have happy lives, however, UTI's are very common and would need monitored and treated. Irritation in the vulva area causes her to lick and create even more irritation which then can lead to drops of blood from an area that is slow to heal.
Our shelter would love nothing more than to send Ivy off for surgery and get her treated. Many dogs can recover fully from the surgery, and of course there is always a chance that the surgery is not successful. The use of incontinence medications can also help increase her chance of her bladder working as it normally should. Unfortunately, we do not have the funds to treat Ivy. We are one of the smallest shelters in Indiana that operates on very, very limited funds. Her surgery is very, very expensive. We have attached an estimate below of what it would cost for the surgery to be performed. There will be even more costs with follow up care and medications after the surgery is completed. There might be other clinics that could perform the surgery for more or less. This is the clinic that is available to us in our area. There is concern that even with the surgery that Ivy's bladder will not function properly since this is a defect from birth. Her bladder has never had the opportunity to function correctly so they are not sure it would function like it normally should even after the surgery.
We are posting Ivy in hopes there is someone out there that is willing to adopt Ivy and care for her as needed either without the surgery or can adopt her and provide the funds to perform the surgery.
Ivy has been doing very well the last several months at our shelter and you would never know that she has a problem other than the drops of urine. When outside this would not be an issue, when indoors there are many products that could be used to keep urine off your floor and furniture. It is not a constant flow, just drops as the urine is formed.
