This might be a long post, but I hope you all take time to read it. My husband and I have come upon hard times, and now, on top of everything else we're struggling with, our sweet 6 year old doodle Ziggy has a leg injury. We're not sure how it happened; we think he might have stepped into a hole in the back yard. Our dogs like to dig holes, and we try to keep them covered up, but it's possible we missed one. Ziggy was limping, favoring his right front leg, so we brought him to the vet, and they did x-rays and labs. The x-rays showed that nothing was broken, but there was a "lesion" on the top of his humerus, which the vet said could be a result of the injury, or there's a chance it could be cancer. They prescribed four medications; pain meds, muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatory meds, and an antibiotic, and they recommended we keep him crated while he heals. Two weeks later, and his limp has gotten worse. He's barely putting any weight on the leg now, despite the meds and crate rest. The vet said if he didn't get better in two weeks, he would need another set of x-rays and labs, and possibly a bone biopsy.

During the last two years, my husband has been on medical leave from work for a total of 12 months, and although he received disability payments, it was a fraction of what he makes at work. We blew through our savings to make ends meet, and were really struggling financially. Then, last week, my husband's father suddenly passed away. We live in Kentucky, and his father lived in California, and my husband is his next of kin, so he has to go to California to tie up all of his father's affairs (there was no life insurance or will). So, needless to say, we do NOT have enough money for Ziggy's vet bills. The first visit was $445, and that was literally all we had.

Please, no negative comments... We have never had a hard time affording care for our dogs. We aren't the kind of people who take in animals without the means to care for them, we simply fell on hard times, as any one of you could also do.