Baby Tate needs your help! This is Baby Tate's story He was born on January 4th 2023 to a Mama that we pulled for rescue in November 2022. We were unaware she was pregnant, however, a trip to the e.r. with her first foster revealed that she was approximately 40 days in to her pregnancy. She made her way from Ohio to Indiana to whelp her puppies here with me. When the 4 baby boys were born, Tate was DRAMATICALLY smaller than the others. I feared then, that something may be wrong. He was nursing and gaining weight daily, so I was optimistic that all would be well. When Tate was 1 week old, we had our first set back. I woke up one morning to him crying and sounding like he was in distress. When I made my way in to check on him, he was struggling to breathe. It seems as though he had aspirated milk in to his lungs. I immediately began nebulizer treatments, coupage therapy and the KLOUD two times a day. The first day I had to supplement him with puppy replacement milk. The next day I thought I'd go in to the room to find that he had passed but to my surprise he was nursing on Kiwi on his own and showing improvement. For the next 7 days we kept plugging away with his treatments and I'd sit with him several hours of the day to allow him to nurse without the other puppies pushing him out of the way. He was doing amazingly well and I thought we were in the clear. As the puppies continued to grow and get older...the time came to introduce a puppy food gruel. At first it was very watery so I didn't notice any real issues with him eating at first. Unfortunately, at 5 weeks of age we had a second set back. I was feeding the puppies their mashed up puppy food. This time is was less watered down. Tate was super excited to eat, so I let him. Shortly after starting to eat, he started acting like he was panicking and started bolting around the room. I noticed he was choking. I immediately grabbed him and could feel him slipping away. I banged on his side a bit, then stabilized his head and gave him a good "fling" like you'd do to newborn puppies to get fluid out of their airways, etc. The food he had eaten came flying out of his mouth and nose...and little by little he was coming back around. I immediately put him on the KLOUD and did another nebulizer treatment. I laid with him while he rested. A little later I put him to bed. Once again fearing I'd awake to him having passed away...but not Tate!! This puppy is a fighter He has fought for his survival since the day he was born. That next morning we were at the vet right at opening time. I needed to get some answers as to why Tate struggled to eat puppy food. His doc took some xrays and she immediately noticed his heart looked abnormal. She sent his xrays off to a couple different specialty Veterinarians and that's when we found out that Tate has what's called a Persistent Right Aortic Arch. This vessel is pinching his esophagus and making it impossible for him to eat anything solid. At this time Tate requires a 100% liquid diet. Now that we had some answers and treatment plan could be discussed. He would require surgical intervention in order to survive. I maintained his liquid diet as I could. During the day when I was at the dog school, I had to leave him with Kiwi and his brothers. I needed him to be able to nurse on Kiwi when I couldn't be there to feed him. This seemed to be going okay...but then set back number 3. Tate started regurgitating the food I was feeding him and I couldn't get him to eat very much over the course of a day. He had stopped gaining weight daily like he'd been doing consistently since birth. I monitored him very closely over the next few days and on a Sunday evening he seemed to be going downhill fast. I rushed him to the emergency clinic. Explained his heart condition. The e.r. doc gave me the vibe that she thought he was a bit of a lost cause. This broke my heart. Tate has fought so hard to get to where he was and I wasn't about to be the one to give up on him. I asked the doc if she could give him some SQ fluids and then I would take him home because we had an appointment at our regular vet just a few hours later. His regular docs see him on Monday morning. We discussed options and a game plan. He was given more SQ fluids and an antibiotic injection and we made our way to the specialty/emergency hospital in Fort Wayne. He was seen by the e.r. doc, had xrays and blood work. His blood work looked good but his xrays revealed that he had a blockage in his esophagus. Initially it was unknown what the blockage consisted of. He was hospitalized overnight on IV fluids and the next day went under anesthesia to be scoped and to have the blockage removed. While he was under anesthesia he also had his CT performed to confirm his heart condition that would be required to have been done before he would be able to have the necessary surgery. The CT confirmed the Persistent Right Aortic Arch. The blockage was hair. Unfortunately, Kiwi had been losing massive amounts of hair after giving birth and Tate must have been accidentally consuming hair little by little as he nursed until it built-up to a point that he had a full on blockage and wouldn't allow any of his liquid diet to pass through. Since his procedure to remove the blockage, Tate has been doing well. Those of you that come to the dog school can see him regularly hanging out in his little pet carrier on the office counter. He has been fairly restricted since his last procedure, trying to make sure he doesn't swallow any more hair or anything else he shouldn't. He is still a puppy like all other puppies and he would like to put EVERYTHING in his mouth. Unfortunately for Tate this could be deadly. He has been eating very well and has dramatically increased in size. He has gained over 3 pounds since that procedure and has been bouncing off the walls. Tate is a true survivor and has put up a tremendous fight to get to where we are today. He is scheduled for surgery at N.I.V.E.S. in Fort Wayne on April 13th and he is in need of some financial help. His medical bills and heart surgery have come to be approximately $10,000. Come Bye Border Collie Rescue is a 501c nonprofit organization. It is very difficult to have 1 dog accrue this amount of money in medical bills, however, Come Bye Border Collie Rescue NEVER gives up on a dog that they have committed to rescue. When one of our dogs is in need our director always makes sure that they get everything they need. Tate's medical bills are unfortunately much higher than we could have anticipated. We are reaching out now to beg and plea for donations to make sure Tate can get the surgical intervention he desperately needs. It is said that 80 to 90% of puppies that have this surgery go on to live relatively normal lives. Donations made to Come Bye Border Collie Rescue are tax deductible and certainly go to a VERY good cause. Baby Tate is 100% precious. Everyone that meets him immediately falls in love with his exuberant personality and love of life.