Please Help Dakota get the Hip Surgery!! Dakota was left at the local shelter because he had bad hips and didnt have the perfect German Shepherd look. He was 11 months old at the time, underweight, weak, had foam glued in his ears to make them stand up and had a very wobbly back end. The shelter removed the foam and most of the glue and had to treat his ears for the irritation from the glueand he seemed very thankful for that! His ears flop down but it makes him very adorable! His rear end, however, is not so easily fixed. Once in the rescue, we took Dakota to the vet to update his shots and see what was wrong with his hips. He became very combative when anyone tried to touch his hip and lower back area. He was very guarded and we are sure he was in quite a bit of pain, as he is a very sweet dog otherwise. We had to postpone blood work and shots until he was sedated for neutering. Once he was under anesthesia, the vet took several X-rays and found severe hip dysplasiaon both sides. She recommended we start him on Gabapentin, Rimadyl and Dasuquin to help alleviate the pain until we got him seen by a specialist. His mood and activity improved after a few days but we could still see that he was hurting. He will eat meals slowly and end up lying down to finish. When walking in the yard, he does the same thing, he will just lie down, and the doc said it is because of the pain. He is a very sweet boy that desperately needs our help. We were able to get him to the Hope Center to be examined by a specialist and once again, he became very combative when anyone tried to touch his back end. They had to sedate him to complete the exam and take a couple of X-rays. We met again with the doctor and she strongly recommended that Dakota have complete hip replacements on both sides. This means they will rebuild his hip socket and the ball of the femur to fit together normally. One side is already partially out of socket. He will need to have the first one done, be kept completely quiet for 3 months then start physical therapy. After 6 months to a year, he can have the other hip replaced and go through the same 3 months of complete quiet and then physical therapy. In the mean time, we will be working with a trainer to help him gain trust of others so that when he has his surgery, we wont risk any complications when he starts PT with strangers. The doctor stated that without the surgery, Dakota is sentenced to a life full of pain, which he has already had since he was born. To have hips this bad, his parents were most likely bred poorly and now he has to pay the price unless we can raise the money to have him fixed. Now that we have a plan to help this young pup have a normal, pain free life, we need to find the funds. We are asking for ANY donation that you can spare, as our rescue is 100% volunteer and they survive on donations. This is an expensive surgery that costs thousands of dollars...please help him. The next day they are doing surgery for total hip replacement is 31 July so we are hoping to raise enough so he can have this procedure. We cant imagine what it feels like to have to live in pain every day