London - A teacher could be forced to remortgage her home to raise £20 000 (about R360 000) for her dog’s life-saving treatment.
Nicki Dyson is desperately trying to find enough money for leg surgery which will prevent three-year-old chow chow Narla from having to be put down.
The pet, who Dyson adopted from travellers two years ago, suffers from elbow dysplasia on her front legs.
The condition causes her bones to rub away the protective cartilage – resulting in bone rubbing against bone when she walks.
Narla is on painkillers and walks with a limp as a result of the condition, and an unconnected issue with her knee on her back left leg.
Dyson, 31, has set up a crowdfunding page on website Just Giving in a bid to raise £20 000 for the complex surgery, which would see plastic and metal plates inserted at Narla’s front elbow joints. The procedure costs £8 000 per leg, with extra money required for scans and after-care.
Dyson has already spent £6 000 treating the condition – with the bulk of the money going on an unsuccessful operation 15 months ago to remove bone from Narla’s front legs.
But her £60-a-month pet insurance policy has a £7 000 payment cap for each condition, meaning she must now raise virtually all the money she needs to treat Narla from scratch. Dyson, a secondary school science teacher from Hull, said she will go as far as remortgaging her own home in order to save her dog.
She said: "Narla’s pain is manageable, she is on painkillers that help her. She can get out into the garden and have a sniff around.
"For the moment, I can see she is happy. Despite everything she is always wagging her tail and smiling this funny smile she has.
"But I want her back to full health. She is so placid and gentle, she didn’t have a good start in life and I’ve always vowed to do everything for her that I can. While there’s something I can do, I will."