Help save Bella: abused dog with medical issues

I am raising money to help with the significant vet bills for this newly adopted abused dog who truly deserves a chance for a good life. We adopted her from the city animal shelter almost 2 months ago. She was incredibly sick at the time. She had kennel cough, intestinal tapeworms, heartworms, a fungal ear infection, and pressure ulcers. All of her front teeth were broken and she has a burn scar on her back. She even had a tapeworm in her eye, which 4 different vets have all said they have never seen before. Ever. She has clearly been abused in the past and has a LOT of fear behaviors. It has been an incredibly difficult two months taking care of her. Initially she was so sick but also had significant behavioral problems. She was so afraid that she wouldn’t even walk inside the house. We would have to pull her around on a towel to bring her to the door to go outside. Sometimes we could coax her to crawl on her belly in the house to try to get her to walk. Eventually we realized that she would walk if we lined bath mats up so we made a path of bath mats through our house for her. Over time, we have been able to spread them out and she will hurriedly walk from mat to mat to find her way through the house. However, she is still afraid to walk around corners and hesitates at the entrance to every room.  She is extremely submissive and will cower at our feet. She doesn’t seem to understand “normal” behavior so we have been working on that with her. I have a private trainer coming to the house to help me with her behavior. She continues to have significant health issues. She has two mammary tumors and needs surgery to remove them. She also has uveitis in both of her eyes right now. To be honest, I have thought about returning her to the shelter so many times because it has been such a difficult journey but I don’t have the heart to do it because I am afraid they will euthanize her. She is a sweet but sad dog. She wants to interact and deserves a chance at a good life. We are now committed to trying to help her. It is heartbreaking to think of what she has gone through so far in life. She had 28 ticks on her when we adopted her. The veterinary eye specialist that she saw today thinks a tickborne illness may be the cause of her current eye issues. This dog has so much against her but I think she is worth saving.  Her vet bills already total $2,000 with the treatment for her kennel cough, heartworms, tapeworms, eye condition,  and estimate for surgery. 
Despite all of her problems, Bella is so funny. She has many odd quirks that make her endearing to all of us. She loves to moan and will lay in her bed and repeatedly moan when she is tired. She is funny to listen to. She walks backwards when she is scared to come somewhere. She will slowly step backwards repeatedly until she is out of the room instead of just turning around and walking away. She likes to fall asleep on her back with her legs up in the air. She is very odd in how she gets down off furniture. She tries to climb down but then just lets her back end just slide off the furniture onto the floor like a snake instead of just jumping down like a normal dog. She loves Peanut Butter Captain Crunch cereal which has come in handy for trying to train her. She will stare at people. She will literally sit at our feet and look up at us with a steady gaze for minutes at a time, staring directly at our face.  She likes to face herself in the mirror and keep guard against the dog that is staring back at her. LOL. She loves to lay on her back and wiggle her body and kick her feet up in the air. She looks so weird doing that but she does it every day. She is such a freak that you can’t help but laugh at her and love her. And I mean that in the nicest way.  

Bella really deserves a chance in life. She has suffered and continues to have significant medical problems. I have posted various updates on Next Door site about her in the last 2 months and had multiple people reach out to me requesting that I start a Go Fund Me so they could contribute towards her expenses. We are trying to do the right thing by this dog but her bills are crazy in the short time we have had her. In addition, she continues to have a lot of behavior issues and we have a private trainer working with her at home. It has been one thing after another with her medical problems and the vets are still trying to sort out what is going on with her.  We are treating her eye issue right now and she has to return to the eye specialist in two weeks. Lab results at that time will direct further care. I fully expect that she is going to continue to require significant medical care over the foreseeable future. If you want to help Bella, please consider donating to this medical fund for her. I will use funds to cover her medical expenses. Thank you so much for your support. Please feel free to share this link to your Facebook pages and with your animal loving friends.

Update: Bella has required additional eye specialist visits and her surgery estimate went up so now her total medical bills/estimate is $2231, but she has had some donations paid directly to the vet’s office.