Lady's Urgent Surgery to Remove Tumor

*UPDATE* Lady's surgery has been postponed due to hives. Please keep praying for our girl. Surgery will now be next week.

The week of Christmas, while snuggling with Lady I felt an area on her left side that I assumed was from rough housing with the other 5 dogs. This area was semi firm, raised & hairless. Within 10 days this area had more than tripled in size. Holiday hours made getting into to be seen extremely difficult. Our vet agreed to squeeze Lady into their schedule for an exam where we were told she will need to go to surgery sooner than later to remove this mass. They explained that they would not typically expect cancer due to her young age but the appearance & characteristics of this mass checks off all the positive cancer boxes. We won't know final diagnosis until the mass is removed & we have final lab report. Our vet didn't have any surgical openings for months. I asked if we could be referred somewhere to do this sooner, I even begged for the vet to do it on that day which of course they could not. There are no accidents, Lady's life this far has been on fate. I wiped my tears away to checkout at the vet office knowing I was going home to look into getting her surgery sooner & just like that someone called the vet to cancel their surgery for next week. Our latest update is that Lady will have removal her mass removed, from there the mass will be sent to the lab to determine what her next battle will be. She has made so much progress in the past year & our plan is to continue to support & love bomb our Lady. We need a little help to get Lady's plan of care started, we are asking for donations to go towards Lady's medical expenses which in return will extend & improve her quality of life. Thank you for your consideration in joining team Lady.

This is how her story started. On November 3, I was driving with a friend in St Croix, USVI. An emaciated dog crossed the road in front of us, we immediately noticed how thin this dog was & that she was also dragging a leg behind her. We lured her with food but then she started to go up a hill so we kicked our shoes off chasing her. Eventually we got her to safety. She was found to be about 6 months old, 4lbs, covered in wounds that were in various stages of healing, ticks- so many ticks engorged in her ears & all over. This pup was in bad shape. We brought her to the opening of a friend's bar as we were already on the way there. The kindness of the dog loving island community were there to help this pup find some comfort providing medications for fleas, ticks, heartworm. We had to give her a name, Lady seemed to be appropriate as she will demand to be treated as a lady for the rest of her life. That night we smuggled her into our Airbnb (shhhhh!!) & from moment on, we were her moms now. Her first couple days with us she was terrified, she could not empty her bladder or bowels comfortably due to her broken leg. She was seen by a vet on island who also did an xray, she had a complete fracture to her left hind leg & BULLETS in her abdomen. Back at the Airbnb, we gave her the master bedroom with our belongings so she would get familiar with our scents. A friend & her husband came to shower this pup with more love lending us a crate & bringing other needed goodies. Day 3 I woke up in the middle of the night on the couch in the living room & this tiny little fighting pup had left the master bedroom to sleep next to the couch & be with us. After all she had been through, she wasn't scared of love & she forgave humans.

Once we got to the states we consulted with an orthopedic vet who said she was not a candidate for surgery due to her malnutrition. With her leg fracture already starting to heal itself, it was determined that her weight was the priority & her leg would be addressed in future if it became a problem for her mobility. As of today Lady weighs 27lbs & she has found ways to work around her disability. She can apply pressure on her affected leg, at times will hop on her good 3 legs & breezes down stairs by hoping on 3 legs.

Lady's first year in the states has been full of love & appreciation. She is obsessed with her people as we are with her. She was welcomed into a pack of 5 other dogs were she is the smallest & with time earned herself the alpha role! 6 months ago Lady began with excessive itching with loss of hair. Initially the vet thought this was a self mutilation. She would lick & scratch until she developed wounds which in return would become infected. Multiple rounds of steroids & antibiotics were effective at the time of taking, once the prescription ended we were back to the same itching with wounds pattern. She was started on an allergy medication for pups with the thought that this could be an allergy to the New England changing of seasons. The medication was costly at $120 monthly, 3 months in & our Lady was not comfortable awaking us at night with her cries while itching & causing wounds. We knew we needed to determine what this skin issue was to find her comfort so we stayed in communication with our vet as well as the walk in clinic as our vet was booked months out & needed to have a vet to bring her to when we couldn't get into ours.