Oso Needs Your Help
Donation protected
Dear Friends,
Many of you have expressed a desire to support Oso's care, so we are humbly welcoming your donations and help to share this GoFundMe page.
Oso is a two year old English lab who developed an incredibly rare ependymoma cancerous growth in his spinal cord. His symptoms began right over Christmas 2018, and we were given the unique opportunity for him to have a spinal surgery on January 22nd. The surgery was very successful, and Oso is already doing better than before. Unfortunately, the neurosurgeon was unable to remove the entire growth, so we know it will grow back. UC Davis has offered us a $5K scholarship for radiation treatment, which will give Oso an extra 10+ years of cancer-free life.
Oso has always been an active and gentle giant. He loves swimming, playing in the snow, and visiting all of his neighborhood friends, Emma, Pixel, Waffles, Frankie, Cooper and more. He loves kids and enjoys licking their unsuspecting cheeks. Oso is our baby; he is the first dog we have ever owned and is well known throughout the entire neighborhood for being "Oh-so-cute."
We are asking for your help to raise $7,100. These funds will go towards the following:
MRI at Oregon State University $2100 (Thursday, January 10th)
Spinal Surgery $2500 (Tuesday January 22nd)
Radiation Treatment at UC Davis $2,500 ($8.5K total, minus $5K scholarship from UC Davis, minus $1K scholarship from Frankie's Friends) (Treatment will be Feb 27-March 27th)
You can scroll down to read Oso's full story.
Donating, or sharing this GoFundMe with your social network would mean so much to us. Every donation makes a difference as we are unable to afford his care on our own. We deeply appreciate your support! Thank you!
Here is Oso and his cousin, Waffles.
Oso loves kitties. Here he is giving kisses to Barry. 
On December 22nd, we were nearly home from Oso's normal neighborhood walk when he started to drag his back right leg and his foot started to knuckle under. When he didn’t get any better with rest, we brought him into an orthopedic center. The vet predicted a neural issue. Oso was given two rounds of acupuncture and we tried a round of steroids, but he had awful side effects. The center gave him a regular x-ray, which appeared to be all normal. The vet thought a herniated disk was likely. So, the next step was to get either a CT scan or MRI to figure out the issue.
This led us to a vet neurospecialist, Dr. Dujowich, who just opened an emergency clinic just down the street from our house. Dr. Dujo also thought it was a herniated disk, which can be treated with a hemilaminectomy surgery with a 97% success rate. While his office has a CT machine, he felt that an MRI would be more useful.
Unfortunately, the one woman who can do vet MRI’s in Bend was out of the country until late-January. I called around to three locations to figure out options to get Oso’s MRI. It was a huge blessing when Oregon State University called me back at 5pm on a Wednesday night, and invited us to come in the next day, Thursday morning at 7:30 am!
Around 2pm on Thursday, January 10th, the MRI results came in and we were shocked to learn that the issue was not, in fact, a herniated disk. Rather, they found a growth in the middle of Oso’s spinal cord that was pinching a nerve. They did a spinal tap below the growth to study what exactly the growth was made out of. This sample was sent in for further testing, and we were really hopeful it would be something easier to treat, like a fungus, bacteria or parasite. The costs of the MRI, spinal tap, and additional testing totaled $2,100.
(You can see the growth here, located at the tip of the mouse cursor.)
On Thursday, January 17th, the results of Oso's spinal tap analysis came in. Pretty much everything was ruled out except cancer. Upon talking this over with Dr. Dujo and a lot of prayer, we decided to move forward with surgery on Tuesday, January 22nd.
Dr. Dujo had to remove 1/2 of one of the vertebrae (a hemilaminectomy procedure) to access the spinal cord. It was easy to see where the cancer was. But, unfortunately, the cancer was the consistency of jello/ pudding, so it was impossible to remove it all. Dr. Dujo was able to remove a lot of it, but some of it was tangled in the nerves, and he did not want to cause paralysis.
By the following Tuesday, Oso was already walking around our backyard on his own. Two weeks after the surgery, Oso was approved to go on walks, and his back right leg is definitely much better than it was pre-surgery! Everyone is literally calling Oso a walking miracle.
The biopsy results came in on February 6th, and we found out the cancer was an incredibly rare type - a spinal ependymoma. There is literally only one other case in the literature of a dog who was treated for this type of cancer. A 4-year old beagle who had a spinal ependymoma also had surgery followed by radiation, and then 18 months later an MRI revealed zero sign of any growth!
UC Davis is welcoming us with a $5K scholarship to give Oso radiation. We do have some resources down there- my company has an office in Sacramento, and our in-laws have invited us to stay at their apartment in Sacramento.
Our initial consult with the head of oncology will be Wednesday, Feb 20th, followed by a CT scan. From there, Oso will receive radiation treatment 5 days a week from Feb 27th- March 27th. We are grateful for this opportunity as we know it will help Oso to live a long, healthy and happy life! But, we're also nervous about the costs as Cris is a college student and I work at a non-profit.
Through these challenging times, we have been deeply encouraged by the demonstration of caring, love, and generosity we’ve experienced. We have been so encouraged by everyone’s financial support, text messages, visits, and sharing our GoFundMe page. We sincerely appreciate all of your prayers and support for Oso.
Thank you so much in advance for donating and/or sharing our GoFundMe page!

XOXO,
Oso
Oso is a two year old English lab who developed an incredibly rare ependymoma cancerous growth in his spinal cord. His symptoms began right over Christmas 2018, and we were given the unique opportunity for him to have a spinal surgery on January 22nd. The surgery was very successful, and Oso is already doing better than before. Unfortunately, the neurosurgeon was unable to remove the entire growth, so we know it will grow back. UC Davis has offered us a $5K scholarship for radiation treatment, which will give Oso an extra 10+ years of cancer-free life.
Oso has always been an active and gentle giant. He loves swimming, playing in the snow, and visiting all of his neighborhood friends, Emma, Pixel, Waffles, Frankie, Cooper and more. He loves kids and enjoys licking their unsuspecting cheeks. Oso is our baby; he is the first dog we have ever owned and is well known throughout the entire neighborhood for being "Oh-so-cute."
We are asking for your help to raise $7,100. These funds will go towards the following:
MRI at Oregon State University $2100 (Thursday, January 10th)
Spinal Surgery $2500 (Tuesday January 22nd)
Radiation Treatment at UC Davis $2,500 ($8.5K total, minus $5K scholarship from UC Davis, minus $1K scholarship from Frankie's Friends) (Treatment will be Feb 27-March 27th)
You can scroll down to read Oso's full story.
Donating, or sharing this GoFundMe with your social network would mean so much to us. Every donation makes a difference as we are unable to afford his care on our own. We deeply appreciate your support! Thank you!
Here is Oso and his cousin, Waffles.
Oso loves kitties. Here he is giving kisses to Barry. 
On December 22nd, we were nearly home from Oso's normal neighborhood walk when he started to drag his back right leg and his foot started to knuckle under. When he didn’t get any better with rest, we brought him into an orthopedic center. The vet predicted a neural issue. Oso was given two rounds of acupuncture and we tried a round of steroids, but he had awful side effects. The center gave him a regular x-ray, which appeared to be all normal. The vet thought a herniated disk was likely. So, the next step was to get either a CT scan or MRI to figure out the issue.
This led us to a vet neurospecialist, Dr. Dujowich, who just opened an emergency clinic just down the street from our house. Dr. Dujo also thought it was a herniated disk, which can be treated with a hemilaminectomy surgery with a 97% success rate. While his office has a CT machine, he felt that an MRI would be more useful.
Unfortunately, the one woman who can do vet MRI’s in Bend was out of the country until late-January. I called around to three locations to figure out options to get Oso’s MRI. It was a huge blessing when Oregon State University called me back at 5pm on a Wednesday night, and invited us to come in the next day, Thursday morning at 7:30 am!
Around 2pm on Thursday, January 10th, the MRI results came in and we were shocked to learn that the issue was not, in fact, a herniated disk. Rather, they found a growth in the middle of Oso’s spinal cord that was pinching a nerve. They did a spinal tap below the growth to study what exactly the growth was made out of. This sample was sent in for further testing, and we were really hopeful it would be something easier to treat, like a fungus, bacteria or parasite. The costs of the MRI, spinal tap, and additional testing totaled $2,100.
(You can see the growth here, located at the tip of the mouse cursor.)
On Thursday, January 17th, the results of Oso's spinal tap analysis came in. Pretty much everything was ruled out except cancer. Upon talking this over with Dr. Dujo and a lot of prayer, we decided to move forward with surgery on Tuesday, January 22nd.
Dr. Dujo had to remove 1/2 of one of the vertebrae (a hemilaminectomy procedure) to access the spinal cord. It was easy to see where the cancer was. But, unfortunately, the cancer was the consistency of jello/ pudding, so it was impossible to remove it all. Dr. Dujo was able to remove a lot of it, but some of it was tangled in the nerves, and he did not want to cause paralysis.
By the following Tuesday, Oso was already walking around our backyard on his own. Two weeks after the surgery, Oso was approved to go on walks, and his back right leg is definitely much better than it was pre-surgery! Everyone is literally calling Oso a walking miracle.
The biopsy results came in on February 6th, and we found out the cancer was an incredibly rare type - a spinal ependymoma. There is literally only one other case in the literature of a dog who was treated for this type of cancer. A 4-year old beagle who had a spinal ependymoma also had surgery followed by radiation, and then 18 months later an MRI revealed zero sign of any growth!
UC Davis is welcoming us with a $5K scholarship to give Oso radiation. We do have some resources down there- my company has an office in Sacramento, and our in-laws have invited us to stay at their apartment in Sacramento.
Our initial consult with the head of oncology will be Wednesday, Feb 20th, followed by a CT scan. From there, Oso will receive radiation treatment 5 days a week from Feb 27th- March 27th. We are grateful for this opportunity as we know it will help Oso to live a long, healthy and happy life! But, we're also nervous about the costs as Cris is a college student and I work at a non-profit.
Through these challenging times, we have been deeply encouraged by the demonstration of caring, love, and generosity we’ve experienced. We have been so encouraged by everyone’s financial support, text messages, visits, and sharing our GoFundMe page. We sincerely appreciate all of your prayers and support for Oso.
Thank you so much in advance for donating and/or sharing our GoFundMe page!

XOXO,
OsoOrganizer
Pauline De Lange Martinez
Organizer
Bend, OR