Maisy’s cancer treatment costs
Donation protected
I feel very awkward making this and uncomfortable asking such a thing of others, but someone suggested that I at least give it a try, so here I am.
I am writing this as I mentally prepare to have my dog hospitalized on fluids tomorrow morning and process the growing number of treatments she will need in light of her horrible cancer diagnosis.
My dog Maisy (who I adopted in July of this year) was diagnosed with late-stage bladder cancer at the beginning of this month. While I had saved up in preparation of the responsibility of a pet and have also gotten a part-time second job on top of my full-time work in order to offset the financial strain of her treatments, like any financially independent 24-year-old doing it on her own, I still find myself very stressed/impacted in the face of her accumulating veterinary bills.
I had no idea that Maisy had cancer when I adopted her; over the past 4 months that I’ve had the blessing of owning her, I have spent hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars on tests and medications to figure out why she has been straining to urinate and bleeding while urinating. Getting the answer, an inoperable tumor in her bladder, at the beginning of December was devastating.
Any kindness you may show toward this situation is so appreciated, in any form. For more of her story, please read below:
I adopted my dog Maisy in July of this year. I was looking for a dog in need who could be a wonderful companion, and I found exactly that. However, I had no idea when I adopted her from the shelter that she already had severe bladder cancer and only months to a year to live.
Maisy was abandoned by her previous owners and it’s impossible to fathom that because she’s the most incredible dog I’ve ever met. She is truly an angel on earth; everywhere we go, everyone falls in love with her. She is gentle, sweet, affectionate, silly, adoring, and the most well-behaved and polite dog I’ve ever known. If you haven’t met her, she would probably love to meet you! She loves people. Maisy makes every day so joyful and filled with love, and for that I’ve gotten incredibly attached to her in the mere 4 months that I’ve owned her.
I feel incredibly dedicated to her being as happy and comfortable as possible, every day that she has. It breaks my heart that I watch her brightness dim so slightly each day as her condition worsens.
The moment when I adopted Maisy was incredibly chaotic; it is a long story that I won’t belabor you with, but I learned a lot from an hour-long, retrospective heart-to-heart I had with a member of the shelter veterinary staff last week, in that a step was missed in the process of me adopting Maisy: before making the decision to adopt Maisy, I was supposed to be spoken to by a veterinary staff member about the fact that Maisy had had a UTI at the shelter and they had deemed it treated and resolved.
While, in truth, that UTI was not actually resolved. Maisy still had UTI symptoms when I took her home (which I didn’t understand at the time, since all I had been told she was now healthy and adoptable); for the first few days, I thought she just really wanted to mark her territory as she acclimated. I grew increasingly concerned when I noticed she was continuing to struggle at bathroom time, so I began taking her to the vet for treatments of apparent UTIs. I didn’t know that her chronic, seemingly infinite and impossible-to-cure UTIs were symptoms of her debilitating bladder cancer until I got the horrible news after a $500 ultrasound in the first week of December.
No one reading this is under any obligation to help me. Like I mentioned, I feel quite uncomfortable making this. But, if it may allow for me to do more for Maisy’s comfort, happiness, and health than I could all on my own like I am now, it is worthwhile to ask.
I have taken Maisy for 3 different veterinary opinions on her diagnosis and treatment and have been working with all three of them to make the best treatment plan for her possible throughout this month.
Since her diagnosis, I have began giving Maisy a medication called Piroxicam every day, which will hopefully sufficiently shrink her tumor so that her kidney (which is currently suffering from hydronephrosis due to being blocked by her tumor) can properly function. The more her tumor grows, the more her kidney will be blocked, the more she is susceptible to sepsis. At this point in her treatment, we are waiting until next Thursday (December 28) to do another ultrasound and see if the Piroxicam is sufficiently shrinking her tumor. If it is working enough, I will continue to get this $80 medication for her every month as long as she lives. If it isn’t, the next step would most likely be chemotherapy shots. Chemotherapy shots are administered every 2 weeks, each shot costing approximately $500. I am nowhere near wealthy and I only have so much saved up, so you can imagine how horrifying of news this is to process.
Maisy has to be hospitalized tomorrow because she has stopped eating or drinking enough water and has been suffering from a horrible stomach ache, likely in reaction to changes in her diet and the intensity of her cancer medication. I have gotten into a routine of feeding her by hand and pretty much begging her to drink water, but that doesn’t seem to be enough in this moment.
I care very much about Maisy and I very deeply hope that finances will not stop me from making her little life with me as happy and comfortable as possible. I have gotten her supplements which her oncologist and other pet owners have recommended, like salmon oil and CBD, and I even went so far as calling a pet psychic last week to tell me what would make her happy while we have time together (apparently Maisy wants more people food, but that will be vetoed for now in light of her stomach issues).
This is a long story and certainly not all of it; I can say a lot about Maisy because there is a lot to love about her and, truthfully, navigating caring for a loved pet with cancer is quite overwhelming and it is hard to condense so much information into a helpful and meaningful format here. I hope this makes sense and I hope it isn’t too strange of me to make this. Thank you so much.
My dog Maisy (who I adopted in July of this year) was diagnosed with late-stage bladder cancer at the beginning of this month. While I had saved up in preparation of the responsibility of a pet and have also gotten a part-time second job on top of my full-time work in order to offset the financial strain of her treatments, like any financially independent 24-year-old doing it on her own, I still find myself very stressed/impacted in the face of her accumulating veterinary bills.
I had no idea that Maisy had cancer when I adopted her; over the past 4 months that I’ve had the blessing of owning her, I have spent hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars on tests and medications to figure out why she has been straining to urinate and bleeding while urinating. Getting the answer, an inoperable tumor in her bladder, at the beginning of December was devastating.
Any kindness you may show toward this situation is so appreciated, in any form. For more of her story, please read below:
I adopted my dog Maisy in July of this year. I was looking for a dog in need who could be a wonderful companion, and I found exactly that. However, I had no idea when I adopted her from the shelter that she already had severe bladder cancer and only months to a year to live.
Maisy was abandoned by her previous owners and it’s impossible to fathom that because she’s the most incredible dog I’ve ever met. She is truly an angel on earth; everywhere we go, everyone falls in love with her. She is gentle, sweet, affectionate, silly, adoring, and the most well-behaved and polite dog I’ve ever known. If you haven’t met her, she would probably love to meet you! She loves people. Maisy makes every day so joyful and filled with love, and for that I’ve gotten incredibly attached to her in the mere 4 months that I’ve owned her.
I feel incredibly dedicated to her being as happy and comfortable as possible, every day that she has. It breaks my heart that I watch her brightness dim so slightly each day as her condition worsens.
The moment when I adopted Maisy was incredibly chaotic; it is a long story that I won’t belabor you with, but I learned a lot from an hour-long, retrospective heart-to-heart I had with a member of the shelter veterinary staff last week, in that a step was missed in the process of me adopting Maisy: before making the decision to adopt Maisy, I was supposed to be spoken to by a veterinary staff member about the fact that Maisy had had a UTI at the shelter and they had deemed it treated and resolved.
While, in truth, that UTI was not actually resolved. Maisy still had UTI symptoms when I took her home (which I didn’t understand at the time, since all I had been told she was now healthy and adoptable); for the first few days, I thought she just really wanted to mark her territory as she acclimated. I grew increasingly concerned when I noticed she was continuing to struggle at bathroom time, so I began taking her to the vet for treatments of apparent UTIs. I didn’t know that her chronic, seemingly infinite and impossible-to-cure UTIs were symptoms of her debilitating bladder cancer until I got the horrible news after a $500 ultrasound in the first week of December.
No one reading this is under any obligation to help me. Like I mentioned, I feel quite uncomfortable making this. But, if it may allow for me to do more for Maisy’s comfort, happiness, and health than I could all on my own like I am now, it is worthwhile to ask.
I have taken Maisy for 3 different veterinary opinions on her diagnosis and treatment and have been working with all three of them to make the best treatment plan for her possible throughout this month.
Since her diagnosis, I have began giving Maisy a medication called Piroxicam every day, which will hopefully sufficiently shrink her tumor so that her kidney (which is currently suffering from hydronephrosis due to being blocked by her tumor) can properly function. The more her tumor grows, the more her kidney will be blocked, the more she is susceptible to sepsis. At this point in her treatment, we are waiting until next Thursday (December 28) to do another ultrasound and see if the Piroxicam is sufficiently shrinking her tumor. If it is working enough, I will continue to get this $80 medication for her every month as long as she lives. If it isn’t, the next step would most likely be chemotherapy shots. Chemotherapy shots are administered every 2 weeks, each shot costing approximately $500. I am nowhere near wealthy and I only have so much saved up, so you can imagine how horrifying of news this is to process.
Maisy has to be hospitalized tomorrow because she has stopped eating or drinking enough water and has been suffering from a horrible stomach ache, likely in reaction to changes in her diet and the intensity of her cancer medication. I have gotten into a routine of feeding her by hand and pretty much begging her to drink water, but that doesn’t seem to be enough in this moment.
I care very much about Maisy and I very deeply hope that finances will not stop me from making her little life with me as happy and comfortable as possible. I have gotten her supplements which her oncologist and other pet owners have recommended, like salmon oil and CBD, and I even went so far as calling a pet psychic last week to tell me what would make her happy while we have time together (apparently Maisy wants more people food, but that will be vetoed for now in light of her stomach issues).
This is a long story and certainly not all of it; I can say a lot about Maisy because there is a lot to love about her and, truthfully, navigating caring for a loved pet with cancer is quite overwhelming and it is hard to condense so much information into a helpful and meaningful format here. I hope this makes sense and I hope it isn’t too strange of me to make this. Thank you so much.
Organizer
Jordana Levine
Organizer
Englewood, CO