January 2024
REBEL
Most likely to brighten your day
Rebel arrived at TLC as a sweet, mellow pup with a lot of adoption interest! Being in high demand, Rebel was quickly adopted by a local family after only about 1 week in a TLC foster home. Unbeknownst to us, Rebel was not just mellow, but he wasn’t feeling well and the adopter’s vet diagnosed him with a possible liver shunt. While TLC was fully prepared to help Rebel and his new family, his family decided to return him to TLC after 2 weeks due to the potential cost of vet bills and the thought of their children not being able to interact with a sick puppy.
Once safely back in a TLC foster home, we continued testing and running blood work to confirm that Rebel was in fact suffering from a liver shunt, a congenital condition in which the veins that should carry blood to the liver bypass the liver through an abnormal vessel - essentially bypassing the liver’s filtration process releasing toxins and waste into the blood. A liver shunt can vary tremendously from one minor shunt that may heal on its own, to multiple shunts that can cause death. Fortunately, most liver shunts can be fixed surgically and managed with prescription food.
Our friends at VRC Malvern referred us to an internal radiologist at Redbank Vet in New Jersey. After all of the tests, bloodwork, scans, consultations & referrals, Rebel finally had surgery on October 11th at Redbank Vet in New Jersey, which specializes in this type of surgery. Rebel is now expected to make a full recovery and will live a long, healthy life in a loving home with his new family.
Rebel is now living his absolute best life! We cannot thank all of you enough for your support, love, prayers, and donations to help support Rebel & our organization! We promised a new and better tomorrow for all of our pups, and we will do whatever we can to keep that promise.
Rebel’s vet bills totaled around $15,000 and he is only one of many dogs in need of specialized care within our rescue.
To help us support dogs like Rebel, click the link below.
January 24th marks “Change a Pet’s Life Day.” If you’ve ever wanted to make an impact, join our amazing team of volunteers to help us save dogs in need and change their lives forever. We have tons of different ways to volunteer - like event support, handling dogs at transports, processing applications, and more!