Yumi needs Surgery & Biopsy

Last year we adopted a very sweet and cuddly senior pitbull/mix named Dulce from Muttvile Senior Dog Rescue in San Francisco. She came with quite a history - a lot of it unknown to us. We renamed her Ayumi “Yumi” Nori - Ayumi meaning ‘walking gracefully’ or ‘sweet fish’ and Yumi meaning ‘beautiful’ or ‘friend’. Yumi was found as a stray in Oakland, she was first taken in by Oakland Animal Services before serendipitously landing at Muttville in San Francisco. Initially she was in very bad shape, and Muttville was thankfully able to give her the specialized veterinary care and foster attention she needed as a senior pup who clearly had litters (indicating she might have been a backyard breeding dog that was thrown out), poor health, and a dissociative disposition that you end up with after a certain level of abuse and/or trauma.

After adopting her, we very quickly realized she was deaf, she needed to gain a lot of weight (she was only 38-40 lbs), she needed a special anti-inflammatory diet due to her poor immunity and past mammary tumors, and she needed supplements and meds for her pain + arthritis. And because of her age, her breed and pre-existing conditions (much like healthcare for humans, y’all), pet insurance was not really a useful option. We also learned she had these growths in her groin area that were supposedly hemangiomas that would need to be monitored (if not surgically removed). Well, we didn’t have the money to remove them, so we have just been using a special shampoo to keep the area clean and free of infection every couple weeks and make sure her senior labwork didn’t indicate any alarm. it’s been a year now, and her bloodwork always comes back “fine”, but they’ve been bleeding out a lot more lately.. and she’s been more interested in licking them .. so we think it’s time to get them removed. :/

We are SUPER thankful to come across the AWESOME people at Vets in Vans, a nonprofit mobile vet clinic that can do the surgery for her at the fraction of the cost (compared to a regular vet clinic). We were able to get an estimate for everything and depending on how many masses we decide to remove (the more the better), it’s somewhere from $1500-$2300.

Adopting —our beautiful sweet fish friend who walks gracefully— has been a gratifying, beautiful, life-changing experience. Yumi’s resilience is unmatched. Her very human-like stoicism is relatable and puzzling at once. Today, she’s a dog that actually likes playing with toys, gets the dino zoomies, wags her tail when she see’s her people, and is a whole whopping 55 lbs! She still doesn’t have any dog friends.. but that’s OK :)

Yumi’s brought a lot of joy, love, and good vibes to everyone who meets her. We’re lucky to have her as our dog and grateful she’s made it this far (there was a time we did not know how long she would make it with us.. ).. I think we are more confidant now than ever that she has a lot more time left with us. We’re hoping we can get her these masses removed and biopsies done to give her more time experiencing the love, care, and attention she so deserves and waited so long to receive!

TLDR: We have a senior rescue dog we adopted last year. She needs to get numerous hemangiomas (masses) removed and biopsied. We love her so much and want her to have the best quality of life for as long as she has left. We are raising funds for the treatment to be done by Vets in Vans.