Scousers rally to raise thousands for puppy’s life-saving surgery

A GoFundMe page set up to pay for a puppy’s life-saving surgery is over 80% of its way to reaching its target.

Butters, a 5-month old Staffordshire Bull Terrier/Bull Mastiff, has been diagnosed with severe pulmonic stenosis, a heart defect that involves narrowing of a valve in the heart that supplies blood to the lungs. Unfortunately, insurance will not cover Butters’ surgery as his condition is pre-existing from birth.

Butters’ owner, 30-year-old Stan Isley, who works as a bar supervisor at the Jacaranda Club said: 

“I got him as a mental health dog, I got him and my life instantly changed. It was amazing. I took him to get his second vaccine and when the nurse was listening to his heart she said she could hear quite a severe heart murmur. I paid a bit extra to get a cardiologist to come in and do some scans, I had to get the best opinion. It was just the worst news out of all the possibilities that it could have been. As he was explaining everything to me it was just going in one ear and out the other.”

Butters’ GoFundMe is currently sitting at almost £3,300, though £4,000 is needed to get him the balloon valvuloplasty that could help him see his first birthday.

Stan said:

“Straight away I messaged my boss and said is there any chance you can give me the most hours possible. I explained the situation and then straight away I was looking at loans and my credit isn’t great anyway. So I’m just thinking how can I get this money together as quickly as possible?

“The cardiologist mentioned I could try GoFundMe, but I was kind of like I’ll just do it on my own. Everyone in work was encouraging me to do a GoFundMe because trying to figure out how to get the money and stuff was just added stress. 

“There’s a lot of pressure because it’s a time sensitive situation and the longer it goes the more the valve will get damaged. The scan itself cost me £1,000 and I pay separately for his medication, I’ve spent nearly two grand on his vet bills.

“I put a post on my Instagram and then really slowly it got to like £625, and then the guy who does our socials in the Jacaranda wanted to do a whole post and everything and it’ll be really good for you and that, in like a day and a half it went from £625 to over £3,000. An anonymous donor donated £500 and I was kind of like wow that’s just insane!

“I was watching it and literally every time I was refreshing it, it would go up by like five or six hundred pounds.There’s no cure, he will die of it eventually, but this will at least give him some kind of life.” 

Butters’ GoFundMe is just 17% away from its target and urgently needs donations to raise the money needed for his surgery.

Stan is looking towards the positives for Butters, who is named after a character from the animated television show South Park.

He added:

“He’s gotten big really fast. I take him to the vets every four weeks to get weighed and he’s gaining like four kilograms of weight each time. He takes up an entire bed!

“It was my birthday last week, my best mate bought me a pair of vans and then designed them, with me and Butters as South Park characters!

You can find out more and donate to Butters’ GoFundMe here.

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