Waylon's Journey: Time for surgery.

Hello!! let me introduce you to our babyboy, Waylon. Waylon’s a purebred longcoat german shepherd. Waylon was bought at 12 weeks old by someone who had good intentions, but didn’t realize the training he would need. When Waylon was around a year old, he started having reactivity issues. Nipping at mostly other dogs but occasionally his human family, he felt like he could never let him guard down, and everyone was a threat. His previous owner had given up and was going to surrender him at the shelter, but the shelter said they’d euthanize him if he came there because of his nipping history. She couldn’t handle him anymore. Was needing to have surgery soon. And so she was planning to proceed with euthanizing him. I already had 4 dogs (3 rescues and one service dog), but I couldn’t give up on him without trying, so with the options being what they were, he joined our little family. He’s been an amazing addition of our pack with LOTS of training and foundation.

Fast forward to where we are now and what we know… Waylon only has one eardrum, because his other one rotted away due to a horrible infection that was misdiagnosed and mistreated by the first vet he saw for several months. As soon as we realized that wasn’t helping at all, we started to see another vet who finally was able to properly diagnose the issue… unfortunately just to find out he had permanent damage to that ear drum/canal and would likely need to keep coming back to the vet for the rest of his life; it was devastating and still is because that ear causes him a lot of discomfort and he’s a very sweet dog when he’s feeling okay. Since July of 2024 he’s been sedated and had a tube put in his throat and out his ear to have his ear flushed from the bottom to top at least a dozen times. The vet said he will probably need this done for the rest of his life because the missing eardrum will likely never grow back. 

Behavior wise he’s come so far, and has truly become my soul dog with the time we’ve spent 1 on 1 working together.  He defines velcro dog, and truly believes he’s supposed to lay in your lap. He steals every heart that he meets. He is an entirely different dog then the scared and misunderstood pup that we took in.

01/17/25: update: after months of having Waylon sedated and having his ears flushed, he gets no relief from it anymore. He is in constant pain and can’t hold his head up straight anymore. So we’re down to our last option which is surgery. Specifically surgery to remove Waylons entire ear canal. Waylon does not have a set in stone surgery date yet but we know it needs to happen asap because as of right now he’s in too much pain. What we also know is that the surgery at minimum is going to cost around 4k so we’re asking for help now more then ever. From anyone who can. 

The initial appointment to plan his surgery (CT scan + labs): Estimated at $2,000-$3,000

Surgery: Estimated at $4,000-$6,000