Surgery for Habanero: More Time, Less Pain

Hi all!

My best bud, Habanero, was diagnosed with cancer back in 2022 when he was 3 years old — soft tissue sarcoma. Due to the location of his tumor, it was suggested that we do not operate, but instead pursue radiation therapy to prolong his life and pause cancer growth. We made it happen through crowdfunding and a BIG career switch for me. 

While this did work back in 2022, his cancer growth has since taken off in 2024. It has grown 10x the size since February, and he’s starting to be very bothered by it :( There are parts of the tumor that he bumps on everything he smells, and it seems they will never heal. He’s got a great life at 5 years old, and I’m hoping a surgery would help him to be more comfortable in his remaining years, and possibly buy him some more time.

This GoFundMe is to raise money for a marginal mass excision surgery performed at Austin Veterinary Emergency & Specialty (AVES) as soon as we’re able. This surgery will not garuntee clean margins, and we will be leaving cancer cells behind. This is purely to make him more comfortable and to give him more time. If we were to pursue clean margins, he would require a bilateral rostral maxillectomy with nasal planectomy operation which would take most of his face, severely hindering his quality of life.

I’m not excited to be asking for funds again for him, but I can’t imagine not giving this my all before the inevitable happens. He’s a sweet kid who still has a lot of time left in thie world.

Thank you for reading, sharing, contributing, and being a part of our journey