Walter Cronkite Tumor Surgery

Hi everyone, you may know our beloved* 9-year-old French Bulldog Walter Cronkite from Instagram, where he’s known as TheDailyWalter . He was recently diagnosed with a benign tumor in his stomach and he needs surgery to remove it immediately.

(*Well, he’s actually not just OUR beloved Frenchie—we share Walter with the world via his Instagram account, so he’s yours, too. We’re so lucky to have an amazing community rallying around him and following all his adventures over the last several years!)

We’ve been asked by both friends and friends-we-haven’t-met-yet alike how they can help; people who are touched by Walter and want to contribute. So, after thousands of dollars in vet bills and the biggest one yet looming later this week for the surgery itself, here’s how we got here:

For a better part of the last month, Walter has been sick in some way or another. We just couldn’t figure it out. After a few visits to the vet for testing, we were told that he had pancreatitis. He was vomiting violently and we ended up putting him on a restricted diet to stop the inflammation. We thought that would be then end of it, but he continued to randomly regurgitate his food. Either he would spit part of it up on the floor and then go about his business, or into his mouth and swallow it back. While he’s had isolated and unsustained bouts of this in the past, which we just attributed to something he’d eaten and/or a finicky Frenchie tummy, it became a thing that was happening multiple times over the course of the night, during walks, or just at home sunning himself. After 4-5 sleepless nights, we decided to take him back to our vet at West Chelsea Veterinary for a closer look.

X-rays showed nothing structurally wrong with his esophagus or stomach, so we moved on to a sonogram which revealed a mass in his stomach. At first they couldn’t tell if the mass was foreign or not but after another sonogram they confirmed it was a tumor. This was probably one of the worst days of our lives. Walter is truly our best friend, and having to contemplate the unimaginable was incredibly painful.

The next day we put him under for an endoscopy and biopsy which revealed the true source of his suffering: a tumor the size of a plum in his stomach. Due to the fact that it’s located right up next to the opening for his small intestine, it has to come out, despite the amazing news that it’s benign (we confess: we cried in the vet’s office when we got the biopsy results).

And that’s why we’re here today. Honestly, we’re scared. If you’re not familiar with brachycephalic dogs like Frenchies, Boston Terriers, and Pugs, anesthesia can be very dangerous for these breeds. However, we need and want to give him the best life possible, and have found a caring surgeon with lots of experience: Dr. Pavia at Blue Pearl Hospital here in NYC. He’ll be going under anesthesia (and hopefully will never have to ever again!) for his surgery on Thursday morning. Walter is strong and tough and we just know he’s going to crush this surgery! We can’t wait to see his happy little face on Friday when we pick him up.

But the bills. Oh, the bills. In the lead-up to this surgery alone we’ve made over a half dozen trips to the vet and spent $5,027.51 (not including medication and special food). Some of the major things have been:
- Blood panels  
- Multiple X-rays
- Sonogram
- Endoscopy (the most expensive, which included anesthesia and the biopsy)

The surgery will be at least that much, if not double, and going forward he will need aftercare on his intestines which are showing early signs of lymphangiectasia disease. We should have an estimate on the surgery costs tomorrow. We are (hashtag)blessed enough to have good jobs that allow us the flexibility to stay home with him during his impending recovery, but what we don’t have are thousands and thousands of dollars for an emergency surgery like this.

People have been asking for a way to help, so we decided to set up this GoFundMe. If you’d like to contribute a little bit to Walter’s cause we would appreciate it endlessly. As a matter of fact, we’d probably cry some more, this time out of gratitude. All of your money would go not only towards Walter’s most recent bills, but also towards the surgery this week and aftercare going forward. Should we go over our goal, additional money will be given to other dogs in need. We fully intend to pay this one forward to other furry buddies with medical issues, and will make sure to keep you all posted every step of the way.