Archive

1. Missy

   February 26, 2016 6:12 pm Comments Off on Missy

   

   I adopted Missy in January 2013 from the Delaware Valley Golden Retriever Rescue in Pennsylvania. After losing my nearly 14 year old golden, Casey, to cancer at the end of 2011, I was finally ready to open up my heart to another dog and I thought my 10 year old golden Max needed a friend. I saw Missy posted on the website and something about her photo just caught my eye. She had been surrendered to the rescue by her family after being with them her whole life (9 years). They could no longer afford her (both the vet bills and the special food that she needed to deal with her food allergies) and they were tired of dealing with her environmental allergies. Missy was very ill when she entered the rescue, her allergies had gotten out of hand and she had multiple infections that made her lose much of her hair and made her very sick. The folks at the rescue were able to nurse her back to health and get her ready for her furever home.

   Max and I met Missy in January and we both fell in love with her. We immediately put her in the car and drove her back to Virginia with us. I knew of her allergy issues but I was convinced that she was “my project” and I was brought into her life for a reason and my job was to get her well and make her happy. When I got Missy home, I noticed she was a little chubby and seemed to have a hard time walking. After an MRI, we discovered that she had a tumor on her spleen. Dr. Pan at VCA removed the nearly 6 lb. tumor from her abdomen, along with her spleen.

   Everything was benign and I think Missy was a starting to feel much better, except she could not shake the nasty ear infection that she had. Missy had chronic ear infections for nearly her whole life and after an ear culture, we discovered that she had MRSA in her ear. We were eventually successful in treating the infection in her ear (but unfortunately it has currently returned) and I thought we were on the path to recovery and were ready to take on allergy season.

   We proactively started Missy on Atopica in the spring. I think it helped to some extent but all through the summer, she struggled a lot with allergies. She licked her arms constantly and ultimately wound up with a MRSA infection on her belly. Missy was still on doxycycline for her belly infection when she had a seizure in the middle of the night almost a month ago. It scared the heck out of me and I quickly took her to Dogwood. Missy was diagnosed the next day with lymphoma. I was shocked and devastated since I lost her brother Max suddenly and very unexpectedly to hemangiosarcoma in May. There was nothing that I could do for Max but the doctors at Dogwood felt that Missy stood a chance with chemo. She is currently a patient with the Oncology group at Dogwood and is undergoing chemotherapy with a prognosis of 6-8 months. So far, she has been reacting well to it and has been a trooper.

   Even though I knew Missy would be a “project” because of all of her issues, I didn’t anticipate the magnitude of the project and the expense. However, that being said, I wouldn’t change a thing and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Missy is the sweetest, gentlest dog that I have ever met and I have never for a second regretted adopting her. Despite what I am assuming was neglect with her previous owner, she has really blossomed over the past 9 months. When I take her out to events, she now seeks attention from people and adores the affection, versus trying to blend away in the background. I think she is happy, regardless of the numerous health challenges that she has faced and continues to face. Of course I am hopeful that the chemo will be successful and we will be together for more than 6-8 months, but even if we are not that fortunate, I will always treasure all of the time that we are together.

2. Max

   6:09 pm Comments Off on Max

   

   Max is a lovable almost 5 year old golden retriever. He is very protective to those close to him but is so gentle and kind and just wants to be loved. At 8 months old he was diagnosed with hip dysplasia in both hips. Thankfully no action was required then, but he has always had a harder time getting up, though that has never stopped him.

   Earlier this year in May, he had a tumor, but after surgery we were relieved to hear it was a benign tumor. In August what we thought was a cut turned into a scab. After taking him to the vet, we learned it was a mast cell tumor. We had the tumor removed, but unfortunately the same week Max had surgery we were in the process of moving from our home state of Michigan to Virginia. My husband is in the Navy, so we didn’t have much choice on when. Max was a champ and handled our move very well. A week later our vet from Michigan called with some bad news, Max had a mas cell tumor with a grade 3. She strongly recommended that we see an oncologist. After our visit with Dr. Waite, we learned without treatment Max was only give 3-4 months to live, putting us right around the holidays. The thought of just moving and losing our beloved pet right away was no option fr us. we started treatment immediately. A month into treatment, his test results came back positive for CKIT. We are now undergoing Palladia for as long as he can tolerate it. We want Max to live as long as he can. We feel he deserves it and will do anything for him.

3. Libby

   3:24 pm Comments Off on Libby

   

   Our precious 8 year old Labrador retriever, Libby, was formally diagnosed with cancer on my 27th birthday. It was a huge shock to us, as it was only found after we attempted to have her teeth cleaned. She had absolutely no symptoms whatsoever. Our vet, who has known Libby since she was five weeks old, was devastated to have to tell us that our baby girl had cancer, and of all places, on the tongue.

   Those who have known me for a while know that my dad randomly brought home a dog in a box on the 4th of July in 2005. She was five weeks old, didn’t bark, didn’t move, and wasn’t exactly wanted, to be honest. We kept her, and we have had no regrets. She’s grown from a five-week old ball of fluff with huge feet to an absolutely beautiful dog (she still has huge feet).

   However, Libby has not been the easiest dog to care for. She has chewed the paint off walls, put holes in all my socks, torn apart more than one toy, had worms come out her butt, pooped on the living room floor and on the floor on the last day of obedience class, and yes, once she tried to eat a frog. We were lucky with the frog because when it moved in her mouth, her eyes got large, and she spit it out, utterly confused.

   She cheats when she plays soccer, by biting the ball and running with it. It took her a good five years to finally get the hang of catching a frisbee. She’s the most uncoordinated thing alive. She’s the Lab that hates water with passion, and has never once been swimming. She refuses to entertain the idea. Trust me, we’ve tried.

   She’s got more toys than a two-year old child. When she was a puppy, my sister and I and I would jump on the couch to save our shins—she apparently thought they were chew toys. As a puppy she would rather play with containers and socks than with the multitude of toys we bought for her. She used to run around the house at warp speed. She’s never missed a meal. If you turn your head while eating, she won’t guarantee your food will be there when you turn back. She’s never visited me in Iowa, where I attend graduate school, but she knows that we have a place in Iowa called Woofables, and she gets delicious treats from them. She expects them when I come home for a visit.

   She’s the best companion two adult children could’ve ever wished for. I bet she never guessed after arriving at our house in a box that she would be blessed with a family who loves her so dearly, She is our Libby, our Liberty Bell Mason, Libby Bell, Smelly Belly, Bella, Bells, Yibby, and a million other names she’s probably ashamed we call her. And we love her with every bit of our hearts.

4. Gunner

   1:36 pm Comments Off on Gunner

   

   “My sweet dog Gunner was recently diagnosed with Grade III mast cell tumor. His rather large tumor was removed from his neck in early March; it was “hiding” within the skin under his neck and went undetected for a while. It was discovered one day when I tightened his collar; his thick coat masked it visually. My heart sank a bit when I found it.

   “Gunner is a 7-year-old Golden/Yellow lab mix rescue that I have had since he was 6 weeks old. He looked like a little tank when I first got him with a chunky body with big feet and a big ole head. He has evolved into a handsome boy and savors the comments like “what a beautiful dog”; he knows exactly what they are saying and holds his head a bit higher when someone comes to pet or pay attention to him. He holds no pedigree but most people think he is a purebred buff colored Golden when they see him. His stature (all 110 lbs of him) is as big as his heart and he makes everyone smile; quite the charmer to say the least with his smilin’ face and big feathery swooshy tail. He is a talker when he enters a room and doesn’t get the attention he thinks he deserves.

   “Gunner has already endured two TPLO surgeries to correct damaged ligaments in his back legs over the course of his life – three years apart. He also has some degenerative disc problems in his lumbar spine. He has had the usual “lab” ear infections and I think has some food allergy problems that have been resolved by feeding him “grainless” dry food and he has never showed that he is hurting or is in pain.

   “I have always been able to give the best care that I could for him and his ‘sister.’ I have no real children and have always had animals in my life.”

   *Update*

   “Hi FETCH! Just wanted to let you know that my sweet boy Gunner reached the end of his journey on this earth last week and I had to make a tough decision on having him put to sleep. He battled his aggressive cancer with dignity, a gentle tail wag and a smiling face. He captured the hearts of all that got the pleasure to meet and spend any time with him. He was not only giant in stature but also in heart. Dr. Waite at TOS was gold in her treatment plans and your organization gave us a bit more time together and aided Dr. Waite in evaluating some of the newer mast cell tumor drug therapies.

   “Thank you all for all you do to help people have extended time with their special family members. Those few extra months were very special to me. Rest in peace, my gentle giant!”

5. Dusty

   February 25, 2016 8:20 pm Comments Off on Dusty

   

   My name is Kristina and I am the proud owner of Dusty, an 8 year old golden retriever. We have had Dusty since he was 14 weeks old. From the day we got him he has been a very special baby. In Dec we noticed that Dusty was limping. We looked at his left paw and noticed that he had what looked like a boo boo in between his pads so we put some Hot Spot medicine on it to get it healed. About a week later we looked and it and the spot had gotten so big. So I called my Vet Dr. Johnson at Pet Center Animal Hospital to make an appt. We went in that day and was shocked to learn that this was not a boo boo but it was a tumor. Dr. Johnson advised me that this needed to come out as soon as possible. He setup the surgery for the next morning. He advised that there could be a possibility that he might have to take off Dusty’s foot. That was lot to swallow as you can imagine. Here I think I am bringing my baby in for a foot infection and be told that this is a tumor and that it is going to have to go to pathology too find out what we were dealing with. A few days after surgery we had to bring him in to get his bandages changed and he had developed an infection where his IV was. Also there was a blood clot that had formed. So we had to put him on additional antibiotics. About a week later Dr. Johnson called to give us the results of the pathology report. (It took longer than normal due to the holidays )lt was not good. He advised we had 2 options. He said that it was a plasma cell cancer and that we would need to have follow up treatment which would be radiation or we could do the waiting game and when it came back and it would, he would have to remove the paw to get rid of the cancer. Well to me that was not an option. As much as I hate the fact of Radiation that seemed like the best course of action to give my baby the best quality of life. He reached out to Dr. Gustafson and she advised him that if we got 15 treatments of radiation that she felt confident that would get rid of the cancer. Today Jan 30, 2013 we had our apt. with her to go over all this. So we setup the 15 treatment of radiation to get the cancer gone and not have to look over our shoulders.

   As you probably are aware radiation is extremely expensive. Dr. Gustafason recommends that we reach out to your organization to see if we could get come financial help with the cancer treatments for my Dusty. We would greatly appreciate any help financial help that you provide. We are willing to do whatever you need us to help. We can do fundraisers; we can help drive other families and their pets to Dr appts. My Dusty is the sweetest soul you would ever meet and he deserves to be rid of this nasty cancer and live a good quality of life. Our other Dog Teddy Bear died 4 years ago in May and I can’t stand to think of losing my Dusty as well. Our dogs are like our children. God blessed us with this beautiful baby and we have to give him the best care we can.