My best buddy Lucy needs surgery



“Can she not hear me anymore?” I wondered as my dog Lucy failed to greet me at the door for the 4th time that week.

This was the start of a 2+ year long battle with ear infection after ear infection that has left us frustrated and exhausted. My amazing, intense, cheeky and oh so loving blue Heeler hasn’t been herself in a long time.

After trying everything, we’ve come to realize she has small polyps in both ears that are making it impossible to treat. In fact it’s been so long that it’s likely that the infection has passed the ear drum and is unreachable without surgical intervention. There is also a chance of there being more (possibly cancerous) tumor in the middle ear that needs to be removed.

The TECA Surgery (total ear canal ablation) is very complex with facial nerves and the small bones in the ear so close to the inner ear. It requires a specialist and a CT scan before the procedure. All together the cost will be $6000 for the surgery. After spending two years on one vet bill after another, my funds have been all but depleted. I’m certainly not asking my community to pay for an entire surgery. But I’m trying to ask for help when I need it and this time I do need it.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

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First came hearing loss, then came the smell. Something was definitely not right. We’ve done everything imaginable to remedy this issue. It’s been miserable for the both of us. Daily ear cleanings that are gross, messy and a huge source of distress for my buddy. We’ve been prescribed endless solutions, flushes, goops, gels, creams, pills and even some sort of strange tube thing that literally did nothing but cause her to rub her ear so hard that she was losing fur. I changed her whole diet. A fancy hydrolyzed protein from the vet? Nothing. Find a novel protein and feed her only quail for two months? No change. For real. Quail. We had medication formulated specifically for her by a drug compounding company. Spendy and useless. At this point there are no other options. I mean, there are, but they are surgical as well, have a very high failure rate and truthfully, we are both tired. The TECA surgery is our best bet. She a funny, sneaky, sweet old soul but this ear nonsense has really brought us down.