Support Archie's Cancer Recovery

Hi there,

We are Courtney and Craig and we are here looking to fundraise for our sweetest boy, Archie.

We’re not really sure where to start with this. If you don’t know who Archie is, he’s our crazy, silly, stubborn and smarty-pants Vizsla, our first child. Unfortunately and to the surprise of many that might know us, Archie was diagnosed with malignant melanoma nearly a year ago, and what a rough year it has been for our beautiful boy.

To give you a bit of a background...In November of 2014 our hearts exploded and our world changed forever when we brought home our little pup. Since then our lives have revolved around Archie - daily off-leash walks, beach runs at sunset, playdates with pup-friends and cuddling, lots and lots of cuddling! Major life decisions were made with Archie at the forefront like what vacations to go on, what house to buy and how to announce our pregnancies. Archie has been with us through every single milestone in our lives and was even our daughter Tillie’s first word. We are no doubt the people, parents and family we are today is because of him.

In September of 2023, we took Archie in to get a few moles removed from his eyelids and nose. We decided to get a biopsy for peace of mind and discovered that one of the moles on his right inner eyelid was in fact malignant melanoma. Receiving the news that Archie had cancer started us on a LONG and costly journey of doing whatever we could to help restore and most recently, save, his life.

After an initial round of biopsies, X-rays and CT scans it was determined that the course of action would be localized radiation for the eye as well as a course of melanoma vaccines to slow any continued spread of cancer throughout the body. From February to April our boy dealt with twice weekly radiation treatments. He went under anesthesia each time, received a slew of pain meds and anti-anxiety pills. Once the course of treatments had been completed it was a waiting game to see if the tumor would spread again.

Unfortunately come May, the radiated skin around his eye had not healed and regrowth of tumor coupled with infection rendered the eye itself closed. We had been told the next step would be to remove the eye completely, a harsh reality but one that would still give Archie a wonderful life upon recovery. He was given more antibiotics and we waited for more improvement, but none. Upon revisiting the doctors to discuss eye removal, it was then an absolute dagger to our hearts to hear all of a sudden that there was “nothing they could do” and that it was too advanced to treat. We were given pain medications to “give him comfort for the rest of his life” and when we questioned the initial plan for surgical treatment, we were told “we would be lucky to find anyone willing to do an eye removal surgery that extensive”.

To hear that our spritely and nonetheless happy Archie would have to succumb to this eye tumor/infection was an answer we would never accept and so we sought a second opinion.

Luckily we found an amazing emergency veterinary hospital who told us they saw a pathway to help Archie. After another round of CT scans and XRays to rule out any spread of cancer (luckily there was none!) they quickly got to work removing the entire eye and surrounding area. After removing all traces of tumor and infection, which included shaving parts of his skull to get good margins, they stretched skin from his neck up and over the area around the eye, called a skin flap. After a few long days and nights in the hospital, Archie came home with 50+ staples in his face, a huge bag of meds and strict recovery instructions. The surgery was WAY more intense than we had ever anticipated yet our boy seemed much happier without the pain and suffering due to the mess of an eye that was before.

Archie has most recently had to go back in for and second surgery given that a small part of the skin flap did not survive. Surgeons covered this hole with yet again another skin flap, more staples but are nonetheless positive about the outcome. Although he still has weeks of recovery and close monitoring ahead of him, doctors are hopeful that this could be the last maneuver needed to save our sweet boy, finally restoring his quality of life.

And so here we are. It has been nearly one year since Archie’s initial diagnosis and almost 7 months of consistent vet visits, radiation treatments, surgeries, medications and mostly, worry. It has been heartbreaking to watch a year of Archie’s life go by where the majority of it has been spent curled up in his bed, in a cone, confused why he can’t go out, uncomfortable, and probably scared. If enduring this process gives us a couple more years with Archie, or even months, even just ONE DAY for him to sniff and run and dig and frolic and play, then the costs have been worth it.

Fortunately we DO have pet insurance as Archie the pesky vizsla has a history of eating things, pit bull attacks, foxtails and the rest…but unfortunately our insurance is capped annually at $15,000. This $15,000 was just short of covering the initial part of Archie’s recovery - the radiation and melanoma vaccines. Unfortunately with all the new testing, the extensive eye removal surgery and now the revision, we are out of pocket an additional $23,000. Archie will still need constant monitoring, future scans, rechecks, and will have to stay on a melanoma vaccine for life. It’s been a hefty sum to bear and an extra, nasty layer of mental load in the midst of it all. But we know wholeheartedly this was the right thing to do to save and continue saving Archie.

We are very proud people and had reservations when it was suggested to start a go fund me by several people who wanted to help. It still doesn’t feel comfortable sharing this process and financial burden with the world…but we will continue to try to do everything we can for Archie. Lucky for him we really do have a lot of amazing people in our lives.

We never in a million years thought we would be in this predicament but our love for our dog, as many of you can relate, is profound.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to anyone who is able to help.

(And the biggest thank you truly has to go to Dr Pike and his team at the Veterinary Speciality Hospital in Sorrento Valley for saving our boy.)