Help Save Luna the Chihuahua!
Donation protected
Hello Community, It is a hard decision to ask for help, especially when that help is financial. But we are doing so because we need help getting medical treatment for our chihuahua Luna.
Luna started to have seizures in early April of this year, after spending a lot of money on diagnostic testing including an MRI, it was discovered that Luna has a brain tumor. To complicate matters, to prepare for when she has radiation treatment, Luna needed to have a CT scan - the CT scan revealed a possible cancerous thyroid mass which will require surgery.
Not counting the radiation treatment, we have already spent $4904.03 on emergency visits, diagnostic tests, consultations and hospitalization.
Fortunately Luna is a candidate for a specialized radiation treatment which only requires three radiation sessions. Each session is not very long (less than 30 minutes each). For dogs who receive this type of radiation, success rates of dogs remaining tumor free have been more effective than traditional radiation. Many dogs remain tumor free for 18-24 months. The problem is that it is really expensive.
Luna as you all know is part of our family not just a dog. Luna is especially important to my family because she belonged to mom who passed away. Luna was actually named by our mom, our mom named her Luna because she said that Luna was as white as the moon when it’s full. I call Luna my sunshine, she is pure love and happiness. In the morning she wakes me up and is always wagging her tail and jumping around so excited for a new day. I don’t know what I would do without my ray of sunshine each morning. Our family has had a lot of loss, the death of our parents and the murder of our brother. Dogs have become not only our family members but our healers. Luna in particular is a link to our mom who we miss daily. It’s incredible to love a creature that was also loved by our mom. It’s a simple but pure joy to watch Luna play with her favorite squeak toys and sunbathe, it makes a hard life that less harder.
Luna is a great sister to her older sister Angel and her younger sister Foxy. When Foxy came into our family she helped Foxy get acclimated to her new family. She loves to play with toys and enjoys tossing them up in the air! Luna is bilingual and understands commands in English and Spanish. She loves to give her family kisses and if you tell her “beso” she will gladly give you kisses. If she is hungry, she will tip over her food bowl and drag it until you fill it up and howl at her humans until you pay attention. Luna is super smart. Her favorite treats are carrots and broccoli and she loves to get massages. She is always at the door to greet her humans and makes sure to jump real high to greet them. She is one of the most loving sweetest dogs ever.
Because myself and my family, Sonia & Annecy López have other dogs with special needs, the cost for this treatment is beyond our means and/or will put us into severe debt. The total cost is well over $9000.00 (please see treatment plan pics) for the radiation treatment and $5,810 (please see pics for estimate) for the mass removal surgery. Luna will also have lots of follow up visits with her neurologist. Additionally Luna will require medication for life even with treatment.
Really, anything will help! We hope to have Luna start treatment ASAP and then have her have the mass removal surgery so we are trying to urgently raise funds.
To cover the cost of radiation we are are shooting to raise $10,000.00 but hoping to make it to 15,310.73 to help cover the cost of the mass removal. In an ideal world if we could raise $20,714.76 to pay off the credit we used to pay for all the expenses so far we would be so grateful and have some extra for follow up care. We are not a family of a lot of means so any debt affects us greatly. Because we have other special need dogs we already have debt built up from the care they have needed.
We know this is asking a lot. But we are asking that community help us. We have consulted with specialists, including her neurologist Dr. Sullivan at Animal Specialty Group and the radiation doctor Dr. Jacovino, at VCA West LA Animal Hospital. All doctors agree that Luna is a great candidate for this treatment, would not cause her harm and would not affect her quality of life - she is happy and playful and treatments will help her stay that way not just extend her life for us.
Because Luna was hospitalized on May 22nd due to having had cluster seizures- she had 7 back to back- some of the money we had saved for her radiation was used for her medical treatment while she was in the hospital. This prompted us to take the leap into asking for community.
We know there is a lot of need out there. If you don’t feel called to help us that’s okay, but we do ask that you consider helping keep our family member alive or sharing with friends who might be willing to help. Thank you for reading and please send prayers and positive energy to Luna. Any amount donated will help towards her care. Thank you!
Sincerely and with hope and gratitude-
Melissa, Annecy, Sonia & Luna Lopez
Luna started to have seizures in early April of this year, after spending a lot of money on diagnostic testing including an MRI, it was discovered that Luna has a brain tumor. To complicate matters, to prepare for when she has radiation treatment, Luna needed to have a CT scan - the CT scan revealed a possible cancerous thyroid mass which will require surgery.
Not counting the radiation treatment, we have already spent $4904.03 on emergency visits, diagnostic tests, consultations and hospitalization.
Fortunately Luna is a candidate for a specialized radiation treatment which only requires three radiation sessions. Each session is not very long (less than 30 minutes each). For dogs who receive this type of radiation, success rates of dogs remaining tumor free have been more effective than traditional radiation. Many dogs remain tumor free for 18-24 months. The problem is that it is really expensive.
Luna as you all know is part of our family not just a dog. Luna is especially important to my family because she belonged to mom who passed away. Luna was actually named by our mom, our mom named her Luna because she said that Luna was as white as the moon when it’s full. I call Luna my sunshine, she is pure love and happiness. In the morning she wakes me up and is always wagging her tail and jumping around so excited for a new day. I don’t know what I would do without my ray of sunshine each morning. Our family has had a lot of loss, the death of our parents and the murder of our brother. Dogs have become not only our family members but our healers. Luna in particular is a link to our mom who we miss daily. It’s incredible to love a creature that was also loved by our mom. It’s a simple but pure joy to watch Luna play with her favorite squeak toys and sunbathe, it makes a hard life that less harder.
Luna is a great sister to her older sister Angel and her younger sister Foxy. When Foxy came into our family she helped Foxy get acclimated to her new family. She loves to play with toys and enjoys tossing them up in the air! Luna is bilingual and understands commands in English and Spanish. She loves to give her family kisses and if you tell her “beso” she will gladly give you kisses. If she is hungry, she will tip over her food bowl and drag it until you fill it up and howl at her humans until you pay attention. Luna is super smart. Her favorite treats are carrots and broccoli and she loves to get massages. She is always at the door to greet her humans and makes sure to jump real high to greet them. She is one of the most loving sweetest dogs ever.
Because myself and my family, Sonia & Annecy López have other dogs with special needs, the cost for this treatment is beyond our means and/or will put us into severe debt. The total cost is well over $9000.00 (please see treatment plan pics) for the radiation treatment and $5,810 (please see pics for estimate) for the mass removal surgery. Luna will also have lots of follow up visits with her neurologist. Additionally Luna will require medication for life even with treatment.
Really, anything will help! We hope to have Luna start treatment ASAP and then have her have the mass removal surgery so we are trying to urgently raise funds.
To cover the cost of radiation we are are shooting to raise $10,000.00 but hoping to make it to 15,310.73 to help cover the cost of the mass removal. In an ideal world if we could raise $20,714.76 to pay off the credit we used to pay for all the expenses so far we would be so grateful and have some extra for follow up care. We are not a family of a lot of means so any debt affects us greatly. Because we have other special need dogs we already have debt built up from the care they have needed.
We know this is asking a lot. But we are asking that community help us. We have consulted with specialists, including her neurologist Dr. Sullivan at Animal Specialty Group and the radiation doctor Dr. Jacovino, at VCA West LA Animal Hospital. All doctors agree that Luna is a great candidate for this treatment, would not cause her harm and would not affect her quality of life - she is happy and playful and treatments will help her stay that way not just extend her life for us.
Because Luna was hospitalized on May 22nd due to having had cluster seizures- she had 7 back to back- some of the money we had saved for her radiation was used for her medical treatment while she was in the hospital. This prompted us to take the leap into asking for community.
We know there is a lot of need out there. If you don’t feel called to help us that’s okay, but we do ask that you consider helping keep our family member alive or sharing with friends who might be willing to help. Thank you for reading and please send prayers and positive energy to Luna. Any amount donated will help towards her care. Thank you!
Sincerely and with hope and gratitude-
Melissa, Annecy, Sonia & Luna Lopez
Organizer
Melissa Lo
Organizer
Altadena, CA
