Bonnie is a 5 month old Collie cross puppy at NAWT's Cornwall centre who has been diagnosed with an enlarged heart and a grade 5.5 heart murmur.

On Friday 14th March Bonnie went in to sudden cardiac arrest and now faces emergency life saving treatment which could cost up to £5,000.

If you would like to support Bonnie’s operation and after care, please donate what you can and help us give this cheeky, lively puppy a chance at a long and happy life.

You can follow Bonnie's progress here and on our website www.nawt.org.uk

Bonnie is a 5 month old collie cross puppy who arrived at our Cornwall centre a few weeks ago with the rest of her litter. Unfortunately a check up at the vet’s revealed that Bonnie has an enlarged heart and a grade 5.5 heart murmur (Heart murmurs are graded on a scale on 1-6 with 6 being the worst). Following a scan and assessment by Mark Patterson a cardiovascular specialist, we were told that if Bonnie does not have an operation, she will not live to see her first birthday.

At NAWT, we never stop caring and wanted to give this cheeky, lively puppy a chance at a long and happy life, so we decided we would raise the money to go ahead with the operation. We thought we had a little time so were waiting for a date for her operation at the specialist cardiovascular unit in Kenilworth.

On Friday afternoon Bonnie went into the first stages of cardiac arrest and was rushed to our local vets. She was prescribed medication to help and we were warned she may not make it through the night. During the evening her breathing was getting more laboured and she was struggling to lie down and rest so we contacted Mark Patterson who gave us advice on how to keep her comfortable. Two of our staff at Cornwall stayed up all night keeping her as comfortable as they could, willing her to make it through to the morning.

Being the fighter that she is Bonnie was exhausted but alive in the morning so we set about finding the right help for her. As a cardiovascular condition is so specialist no local vets had the expertise to help, so we had to call upon Dr Patterson again. Despite it being a weekend, he managed to get Bonnie an operation slot at the surgery in Kenilworth for Monday but as we were so concerned about her current condition, he agreed to admit her to his surgery in Gloucester if we could drive her there immediately.

There was no decision to make as our Cornwall Centre Manager hopped into the van and headed to Gloucester. Thankfully Bonnie was so tired that she was relatively calm on the journey and even managed a slight wag of her tail as she entered the surgery. She was immediately whisked away and put in an oxygen tent and connected to an intravenous drip. By 10pm on Saturday she seemed to have turned a corner and by Sunday morning she was eating and continuing to improve.

This morning (Monday) she is on her way to Kenilworth for her life saving operation, assuming the tests and scans show she is well enough to undergo surgery. As with any operation there are risks but we are crossing everything that she has enough fight left in her to survive the operation and make a full recovery.

Bonnie has had so many wonderful people in her corner not least the Cornwall staff and the wonderful Dr Patterson, but we need your help too as all this unexpected emergency treatment is expensive and we are looking at a bill of up to £5,000. So if you would like to help support Bonnie’s operation and after care, please donate what you can (how to donate).

Please join us in crossing everything for Bonnie and we’ll keep you posted on how she progresses.