Colby's medical fund

On November 4th, 2015 our good friend Cathy lost her long and difficult battle with cancer. 

I have been her friend and neighbor since she moved to Menlo Park, and had been caretaker to Cathy's beloved, beautiful and sweet Golden Retriever, Colby while Cathy was receiving medical care. The day that Cathy passed away, we all lost a good friend, and Colby was left orphaned. 

I kept my promise to our friend Cathy in the last weeks of her life that if the worst came to pass, that I would take care of Colby. As we all grieved the loss of our friend on November 4th, I gained a new family member when I adopted Colby.

On December 4th - 10 days before his 4th birthday - I felt a huge lump on Colby's leg, which because of his thick fur had previously gone unnoticed- even by the groomers who had cut his hair just a few days before. On December 15th I was able to get him an appointment at a specialist veterinary clinic called Sage in San Mateo, CA, and they performed a CT scan (see image). They diagnosed Colby with an Inflitrative Lipoma, a tumor that if not immediately operated upon, would require for Colby's entire leg to be amputated.

I wanted to keep my promise to Cathy to provide the best care possible for Colby, and the poor boy had been through too much loss for me to even consider amputation, so on December 16th he received an operation to remove the lipoma. After he healed from surgery we went for another CT scan, and on the recommendations of his doctors, we initiatied radiation treatment at the BAVS-VCA Animal Hospital in San Leandro on February 17th 2016. 

For 16 consecutive days I drove Colby (and his empty stomach) across the Dumbarton Bridge to San Leandro., and would wait until the treatment was complete and return home. The radiated site started to itch and hurt him, so he had to be put on more medications to deal with the reaction his body had to the radiation.

After more than 2 weeks of consecutive trips to the vet, Colby successfully graduated from his radiation therapy, and our hope is that the treatment will have arrested the growth of the inflitarative lipoma and allow him to keep his leg.

The medical bills for Colby's care now exceed $18,000, which I have paid out of my savings, and on a single (non-regular) income this has been very financially challenging.

I ask for Cathy's friends, family and others, to help me to keep my promise to Cathy to give her beloved companion Colby a healthy and happy life.

All contributions will be gratefully appreciated. 

Thank you.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, Susanne Beattie.