A Rochester family faces a £12,000 bill to fund surgery for their hermaphrodite dog

KentOnline / KMTV

Lincoln, a Boston Terrier, was born with hermaphroditism, a rare condition where he has both male and female reproductive organs which has caused serious health issues.

Transcript

00:00To the naked eye, Lincoln would seem like most dogs. He likes playing in his garden

00:04in Rochester, shaking hands for a treat and a bit of tug of war. But Lincoln isn't actually

00:10like most other pets – he's very, very rare. After multiple health issues, scans

00:15and surgeries, experts realised he's actually a hermaphrodite.

00:20The discovery was made after Lincoln had multiple health issues like a cyst, hernias and even

00:25a parasitic infection, some of which are especially rare for younger dogs. And when a specialist

00:30centre performed a CT scan, they found he even had ovaries and a womb.

00:35She goes, every single vet has been to see Lincoln. It's like, right. I said, what's

00:40up with him? She goes, well, there's no really easy way of saying this. He's a hermaphrodite.

00:46And that means he's got both male and female sexual organs. He has two ovaries, a womb,

00:54he did have testicles. They've been removed. And he's actually got both genetic sides of

00:59being a male and a female dog. But we need to do a hysterectomy. And well, I actually started

01:05laughing because this is bizarre. This is a male dog having a hysterectomy. The two words

01:09don't go together. She goes, no, he's fine. It's just that if in later life, this is going

01:15to become an issue.

01:16Now, as you can see, Lincoln is a very energetic dog, but he's also a very rare one. The last

01:22known recorded case of a dog being a hermaphrodite was actually all the way back in 2017.

01:27Now, Lincoln will be having a hysterectomy to remove the female organs. But because of

01:31this and previous scans, the Golding family have burnt through their insurance and have

01:36had to dip into their savings instead.

01:38The insurance got wiped out on the Monday. This is on a Thursday. We have no insurance.

01:45And they were really good, the vets. They know that we haven't got any insurance and we're

01:49paying for it. And it's just eating our savings. But what do you do? It's part of the family.

01:56I don't think I could live with myself saying that, you know,

01:59I can't afford it. We have to find the money.

02:02To help with the £12,000 bill, they've set up a GoFundMe page and say that any of the money that

02:07goes over that number, they'll donate to dog charities.

02:11Now, Lincoln might seem energetic, but his health complications could get worse

02:15if the hysterectomy isn't performed. And Mark says they'll do anything to make sure Lincoln stays

02:20the happy hound they know and love. Finn McDermid for KMTV in Rochester.

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