Help fund Leeloo’s surgery & vet bills

Hi, we’re Chrissy and Dwight and there’s no easy way to explain the health/ veterinary journey we’ve been on recently. Our dog and baby, Leeloo, a 3.5 year old Aussie mix, has a large mass in her lower abdomen that is squishing her other organs and causing complications. The surgeon is 85% sure it is cancer but 5 doctor visits later and we haven’t been able to get a definitive answer. As of now, she is scheduled for surgery on Friday, depending on how her CT scan goes on Thursday. With each doctors visit, the news has been devastating and heartbreaking. We don’t know what the prognosis will be or if the surgery will be successful. However, we know that no amount of money would stop us from trying to save her. Leeloo is quite literally an angel on earth, and if you’ve had the pleasure of meeting her, she likely showed you how much love she has to give.

Any amount of money you can donate would help us pay for her medical bills that we have and will receive.

Please see below for a more detailed explanation of what we’ve been through.

It started in October when we stayed at a house on the beach for my (Chrissy) parents anniversary party. I took her down to the beach one morning to watch the sunrise and play. Leeloo is OBSESSED with tennis balls and playing fetch so I couldn’t wait to let her off leash to play on the beach. However after the first time I threw the ball, she developed a limp and didn’t seem to be able to bend down to pick the ball back up. Sometimes she would let out a little Yelp. We figured she sprained something or pulled a muscle and would wait to see if she got better.

After a week and a half, she was still limping, so we scheduled a vet visit at her primary, coastal vet hospital. We took her in on 11/10 and they assumed she had a sprain in her knee, but she was due for a check up so they did a whole work up. Everything seemed to be normal. They prescribed her an anti-inflammatory and hoped that she would get better soon. This visit was $300

After another week, she still had a limp, so we planned on bringing her back the week of thanksgiving. However that Sunday 11/21, I woke up to a loud Yelp. Dwight was getting ready for work and noticed Leeloo had red bruising all over her belly. I panicked, thinking she was bleeding internally, and took her to the emergency vet (First Coast Veterinary Specialists). She had a slightly elevated fever, swollen lymph nodes, and her blood wasn’t clotting right but her blood work and levels all came back normal. The vet told us “none of it added up” and she couldn’t figure out what was going on. She suggested we make an appointment with an internal medicine specialist, which we did for the soonest we could get in (11/29). The limp had now taken a backseat as far as our concerns went. This visit was $400.

I took our baby home and hoped for the best but then on Wednesday 11/24, I noticed she was drinking a lot of water and peeing multiple times every time we went out. Worried she might have a UTI or kidney stones, I brought her into her primary again (Coastal). They did a urinalysis and confirmed she did have a UTI. Luckily we had antibiotics from the emergency vet so we would continue her on those. However, her vet was worried about her having a slight fever and the way her stomach was brushing and wanted to do an x ray to check her kidneys. This is when the really bad news came. The vet called me back and showed me that Leeloo had a large mass in her lower abdomen, and she couldn’t even see her kidneys with an x ray. She could not tell me what it was but would send the x rays over to the internal medicine/ oncology vet we already had an appointment with. This visit was $400.

We got through the thanksgiving week with lots of hugs and tears. Monday, 11/29 finally came for her to go to the specialist (SEVO). They did more blood work, she still had a fever, blood work came back fine, clotting was almost normal. They did more x rays on her chest, cancer did not appear to be in her chest. They shaved her belly and did an ultrasound, but the doctor could not pinpoint where the mass was attached to or coming from. It doesn’t noticeably appear to be coming from a particular organ. A fine needle aspiration (FNA) was done to pull samples from the mass. The samples came back as just blood and were useless. The specialist, again, could not tell us what this way and suggested that we schedule surgery to remove it ASAP. So we did. This visit was $1,100.

So after work on Tuesday the 30th, we took her to a vet specialist who is a board certified surgeon at Capital Vet Specialists. They did their tests and confirmed that they could not figure out where it was coming from. This vet, unfortunately gave us even more bad news. He said he is 85% sure this is cancer, but he’s not sure what kind. He could go in and do the exploratory surgery, not knowing where it’s coming from or if he will be able to remove it, but there’s a chance it turns out to be too complicated, and she could die on table. Or he could do a CT scan first which will hopefully tell them where the tumor is coming from and what it is attached to, so they know if it even is operable, and if so, if any organs such as the kidney/ spleen are affected and need to come out as well. We went with scheduled the CT scan first, she’ll stay the night and if it’s operable, have surgery first thing Friday morning (12/ 3). This visit and the CT scan was $1,772. The surgery will be anywhere from ~$3,500 to $4,500.

Leeloo is my best friend, she bring me so much joy and I can’t even imagine my life without her. She keeps me company when Dwights at work, and shows us she loves us through lots of face kisses (whether you like it or not) and tail wags. For her favorite people she even lets out a crazy whine when she is so excited to see you. I would do anything for her and at this point, all we can do is leave her in the hands of the vets and hope for a miracle.