Help Sapphire Fight Cancer: Support Needed

Hello everyone, thank you for stopping and taking a second to read about my baby girl. If you can help in any way possible, even by sharing, we would greatly appreciate it.

My baby girl Sapphire is a rare Blue Nose Gator Head Pitbull. She is 13 years old, can you believe it! I got her back in 2011 when I lost my first love due to gun violence, and I tried everything possible to keep our promise. That's when I got Sapphire shortly after. I went through hell to keep her, especially since Pitbulls don't necessarily get the best rep out in these streets. It was real tough; I had to go over loops and hoops just to keep her at my mom's apartment at the time, but I was determined nothing was going to stop me from keeping her. She turned out to be the most loving, caring dog I could ever ask for. She listens, she's trained, she loves everyone and everything; she's so loving. She's healed me in ways I couldn't even explain.

So it's only right for me to put myself in an uncomfortable position and ask the public, God's children, for a helping hand to be able to provide for her and make her cancer process as easy and comfortable for her as possible, especially since I'm doing this alone. I've been maintaining, but the expenses are getting out of hand, having to get new supplies every 3-5 days to change her dressings for her wound, medications, doctor visits, appointments—the list can keep going. But we need to take a different route, and that's why we're in need of your assistance.

Sapphire's health has been up and down since she was 3 years old. She was diagnosed with environmental skin allergies, which means Sapphire's allergic to basically everything. I'm sure you can imagine all of the doctor's visits and all of the medication she has to be on. My poor girl just wants some relief. With her having environmental skin allergies, she's prone to constantly having ear infections. About a year and a half ago, we were having issues with her right ear. I got her checked, and the vet stated it was an ear infection, so we treated it as an ear infection. However, nothing happened; it got worse. Took her back, they prescribed different medications that only made matters worse. This was happening for a year straight, in and out of the hospital. I spent thousands of dollars on medication and visits, and it just kept getting worse to the point where her right ear was so swollen it was shut closed.

At this point, I've had it. I flipped out in the emergency room. It felt like they had given up on her and started prescribing medications for trial and error at this point, not sure of the outcome. I lost it. I know she's just a dog, but she's my baby, my world in doggy form, and one of the kindest souls. I swear she makes you forget she's a dog sometimes. She's perfect in every way, shape, or form. They tried to drain her ear and noticed that they had nothing to drain out. She had a big mass on her ear and neck. They took samples, and results came back that she indeed had cancer. Due to her age, they didn't recommend cancer treatment or surgery because of the high risk she might not make it out of the anesthesia and recommended me to keep her as comfortable as possible during her remaining life on earth because it would be costly if I took that route.

I refuse to stop fighting for her. I've had so many friends and family tell me that she's 13, she's lived a good life, and basically to euthanize her! My girl is still fighting every day. I'm no expert; however, it seems like when they took a sample from the tumor, they exposed the tumor. It spread and burst, leaving her with this massive wound from her ear to neck, deep holes, raw skin, non-stop bleeding. I've been doing my own research and been cleaning it daily with an antiseptic and disinfectant solution called chlorhexidine and then applying raw manuka honey for its healing skin properties. This was working in the beginning; it closed up two deep holes that had formed. However, she's still struggling. Her right ear looks like it's going to fall off any day now, and something needs to be done. She needs surgery or a better treatment plan. They said it would be costly and roughly around $10,000 minimum. She has so much life left in her. I refuse to stop fighting for her until she shows me signs she has given up.

Her favorite hobbies are going on walks, rolling around in the grass, laying on mommy's bed (knowing she's not supposed to), eating treats, peanut butter, and pumpkin puree. She loves tug-of-war and stuffed squeakers; she goes bananas over them. But most of all, she loves to be around people. She wants to be present in the moment. This little momma loves her food, and although I know she's in constant pain, she's still going every day, doing all of the things she loves. So I'm going to do whatever it takes. I don't like publicity; I'm a very private person, but for this girl, I'm willing to do whatever it takes! Thank you all for your time again. Anything helps.