October 13: We want to share a special story with you about a special Sheltie who has stolen our hearts. Her name is Tipsy.
Tipsy was one of the 50 Shetland Sheepdogs we pulled from a property a few weeks ago. She was tiny and bony, and we immediately noticed something just wasn’t right with her. She shook, and wobbled, and acted like she couldn’t hear or see. We carefully pulled her out of the tiny crate she was living in and took her back to our shelter.
For the past few weeks, our veterinarians have been caring for her and Tipsy has been receiving round-the-clock love from one of our foster caregivers. We’ve been running neurological tests and sending off blood work to find the cause of Tipsy’s tipsiness.
Please, donate today to help Tipsy and the hundreds of animals in our care right now. They need you.
October 19: Our girl Tipsy isn’t doing so well. She had a setback after experiencing a medical episode where she became very disengaged and weak.
She was slack-jawed and drooling and just seemed very out of it for an hour. She’s been lethargic and resting for the majority of the day today. This strong girl is trying to be cheerful and playful, but you can tell she just doesn’t feel good.
We’ll keep updating you as this little one’s story unfolds, and we ask that you help us keep caring for animals like her at atlantahumane.org/tipsy.
October 21: Tipsy had a little medical episode the other day, and her foster mom captured it to show the vets. Her test results indicated that she has elevated liver functions, and further investigations revealed that Tipsy has an abnormal shunt going around her liver.
Typically, this shunt closes up before puppies are born, but Tipsy’s didn’t. The shunt is diverting Tipsy’s blood around her liver, causing an increased level of toxic chemicals to travel to her neural tissues. She’s doing better today, but we’ve scheduled her to see the specialist next week for further evaluation.
October 26:
Tipsy had a specialist appointment this afternoon at the University of Georgia. Currently, an abnormal shunt is routing Tipsy’s blood around her liver, causing toxins to travel to her neural tissues. Her CT scan revealed that the shunt was rather large, and she has been scheduled for surgery tomorrow.
“Typically, this shunt closes up before puppies are born, but Tipsy’s didn’t. The shunt is forcing her blood to divert around her liver, so the liver can’t cleanse the blood like it should be able to. This is causing toxic blood to flow to her neural tissues which is triggering her medical episodes,” said Dr. Jennifer Morris, Director of Shelter Medicine at the Atlanta Humane Society. “The condition is so specialized, we decided to reach out to our partners at the University of Georgia for a consult, and likely, a surgical procedure.”
