Cadaver Dog Rayne’s cancer treatment

Hi, my name is Aleks and I’m a member of Search & Rescue Dogs Australia.

We are a volunteer organisation that trains dogs to assist with locating and rescuing people.

One of our team mates K9 Rayne is a certified Human Remains Detection Dog (Cadaver dog); the only one certified for this role in Victoria.

He is a happy go lucky 5yo Lab x GSP and has the best characteristics of each breed.

I’m creating this fundraiser as sadly Rayne has been battling with cancer (Mast Cell tumour). 5-6 months ago his handler/owner Julie found a pea sized lump on his side. After removing this tumour with clear margins he went and completed 4 months of chemotherapy. Everything was looking promising, and he even went through chemo continuing to be a happy boy, that loved his job.

Now in the past week, Julie has found another lump, this time in his lymph node. Whilst waiting for her appointment with the oncologist on Wednesday, this tumour has now burst. Julie is understandably beside herself, and I wanted to set this fundraiser up to support her to get the best treatment possible for this amazing dog.

A CT scan alone will cost around $3000 let alone further surgery and treatment. I’ve crunched the numbers and one of the proposed treatments alone will cost approx $600 a month and if successful, would continue on indefinitely to ensure he remains in remission.

Being a volunteer organisation, we don’t get paid for this service and rely on sponsorships and donations to reduce out of pocket costs for offering this service. So each dog’s healthcare comes from their handlers personal finances.

Having only recently lost another Live Find K9 due to a hemangiosarcoma of the spleen, the emotional toll has been significant for Julie. My heart broke today when she gave me the latest update and said she was broken.

SARDA founder Julie is such a dedicated trainer and handler, with another 2 certified Live Find K9’s, an Accelerant detection K9 and another puppy who will also be trained for Search & Rescue.

She is such a genuine person and dedicated to the cause. Recently her dogs have been written and spoken about in the Herald Sun and the Life & Crimes with Andrew Rule podcast.

She had been contacted to work on various missing persons cold cases, and we were getting ready to commence a search around the time of Rayne’s diagnosis so this had to be put on hold.

If you are in any position to be able to help by donating, I would truly from the bottom of my heart appreciate it - as I know Julie and Rayne will. Any donation is appreciated. I know it’s a large sum I’m aiming for, but even spare change adds up - so every small donation will help.