Please Help With Jagger's Medical Expenses

We need your help!! You’ve all been with us as we battled oral cancer with Jagger…we have sadly lost the fight. But are still facing a mountain of debt from all of his veterinary expenses.

Jagger was a five-year-old German Shepherd from the New York metropolitan area of the United States.

He was found by police roaming the streets in search of food from trash cans. He was covered in a black tar-like substance, smelling like a rancid fish market. Taken to an animal shelter, Jagger was frightened of just about everything. Because he was not cooperating with shelter staff, they contacted an animal behavior for assistance. The behaviorist ended up adopting Jagger and became his new Mom.

After a bath and blow dry, they began a new life together. They focused on overcoming many of the fears he had developed growing up as a seriously abused pup. They worked together to help Jagger build confidence, learn manners, walk politely on lead, and play nicely with others. The rest is history. He now watched over his Mom, 10 kitty siblings and his older Boston Terrier sister, Maggie May until the end.

Jagger loved going for walks and car rides, bathing the kitties, playing in the snow (when Mother Nature cooperated), guarding his home, and doing anything or going anywhere with his Mom. He hated the garden hose, loud voices (especially yelling), fireworks, thunder and lightning.

He worked as a therapy dog for senior citizens until COVID caused animal-related programs to be banned from elder-care facilities.

Jagger bravely fought a challenging battle with oral cancer for 5 long months. His working diagnosis is mandibular osteosarcoma (vs. mandibular fibrosarcoma). The prognosis was not good as the mass was not well defined and surgery would require removal of entire lower jaw. A prosthetic jaw was not an option as surgeons did not believe they could obtain clean margins; a feeding tube would be likely have been required for life.

He was doing fabulous: eating well, playing and acting like his normal self from discovery in December through late March. Then the tumor started to grow. It doubled in size in one week, and again the next week.

He was able to eat & drink with some assistance until his passing, still consuming his full amount of food. Toward the end if he licked himself the tumor would bleed. The bleeding created anemia which lowered hematocrit and necessitated transfusions. Veterinarians do not believe in giving transfusions to patients with cancer. Their theory is that blood is a “precious resource” and is wasted on a cancer patient with a shorted life span. While we fought and succeeded in obtaining several transfusions the last was refused and Jagger could not survive without it.

We are left without our precious baby and inundated with overwhelming debt from the care he received. If you could find it in your hearts to make a donation toward those costs it would be greatly appreciated.

Costs include:

Weekly oncologist visit for UV ozone treatment and vitamin C infusions;

acupuncture sessions for pain management, bleeding control, nausea which are over $1000 per week.

Transfusion costs are $1,900-$4,000 each.

Other specialist consultations:

Radiation oncology consults,

Primary vet for infection control & metastatic X-ray checks,

CT scans

Biopsies

Dental surgeon consults,

Numerous prescription medications & prescription supplements for pain management, bleeding control, antibiotics

Prescription diet