Hi there, my name is Stevie and on Mother’s Day 2026 I adopted my sweet girl Lucy.

Lucy is a 6 year old working cocker spaniel who is just the best girl, she is so gentle and so loving and deserves the world and more. On the 26th of March 2026 I noticed Lucy had a mass, I got her into the vets the next day and they confirmed she would need surgery to remove the mass asap. (Little did the vets know they’d find 3 masses in total)

Lucy was never spayed by her previous owner/owners and this very well could be a contributing factor as to why she was now growing the masses as dogs who aren’t spayed are at a greater risk of mammary cancer and a sever womb infection known as pyometra, Lucy’s age puts her at a greater risk of this too.

Due to this I booked her in for a dual surgery of a mammary strip removal & spay, this was quoted at £1408, this is where the problem starts.

I paid £460 up front to cover the vet excess fee and the spay because insurance doesn’t cover neutering/spaying as it a “preventative” surgery. But they do cover the mammary strip, or so I thought. The 8th of April comes around and I drop Lucy off at 8:30am and say goodbye and wait the longest 8 hours of my life to receive an update that she made it through the surgeries, the vets knew I would be claiming the rest of the money on our insurance, so I picked her up and away we went.

Now the bad news, I received an email from our insurance telling us they will not be paying the rest of the bill. This is due to the mass being found 3 days before the 2 week exclusion period. Despite the surgery being out of that period and very much in the my policy’s cover window, due to the lump being found in those 3 days they won’t do anything.

I am a single mother of two girls, I am not working due to not only my own medical conditions but my youngest daughters too, which Lucy has been such an amazing support for, she’s definitely a support dog through and through and I couldn’t think of a better dog for our family. Life is so much better with her in it and the thought of her suffering breaks my heart and I want her to have the longest and healthiest life I can possibly give, which I thought I could with the help of insurance.

The next issue is that she may need another procedure down the line to remove the other mammary strip on the other side if any of those cells managed to spread before the vets removed the masses in surgery. If this is the case the insurance won’t cover this either as it’s an extension of the recent procedure,

Im never the type to ask for help, I’m the type who gives it. I feel like I’m letting not only Lucy down but myself too as I’m not able to pay the rest of the bill. I feel ashamed that I don’t have some sort of endless emergency fund for things like this. Running a home and raising two children alone never really allows for things like an emergency fund when you’re on a low income. There’s always something that comes up that swallows your savings up,

If you can find it in your heart to donate anything to help with Lucy’s fees. Even just some spare change I would appreciate it more than you’ll ever know.

Thank you for taking the time to read Lucy’s story. Have a wonderful rest of your week.