I don’t love to ask for help, but our situation is dire.
On April 24th, 2026, I was involved in a serious car accident that left me with a fractured nose and right arm. As I am a professional dog groomer, this has put me out of work for the last three weeks. If all goes well with my healing journey, I should be back to work by mid-June. I just started a new job and have lost all of my savings, have no PTO to use, and no way to earn money.
Last March, our German Shepherd developed a lump on his back leg. Initial tests led us to believe it as just a lipoma, not uncommon at his age. However, the tumor began to grow rapidly. By June, he was diagnosed with a soft tissue sarcoma. It was inoperable due to how entwined it was with the tissues in his leg. Our choices, at the time, were remove his leg, say goodbye to prevent suffering, or leave it alone and hope old age takes him before the cancer does. Besides an ugly mass on his leg, Dogmeat was completely healthy. No other reason to believe he won’t have years left. We decided to leave the leg as we weren’t sure he would adapt well to an amputation and didn’t want to take the leg if he could live how he was.
In March of this year, he developed an infection in the tumor. After a wide-bore needle aspiration left him with a wound unable to close, we were constantly battling contamination. A round of strong antibiotics seemed to help for a bit and he was back to (his) normal. Then, shortly after my accident, we realized the infection not only came back, it came with a vengeance. Abscess pockets developed all around the tumor. Dogmeat’s skin had become necrotic from the infection and lack of blood flow, and began sloughing off. It was horrendous, both in sight and smell. This left us with just two choices: take the leg or say goodbye. Dogmeat has so much life left in him, we couldn’t justify putting him to sleep. So, the decision was made to amputate his leg, all the way at the hip.
The surgery went as well as we could have hoped. Our vet is wonderful and the only one we trust. But, now we have a $2,500 vet bill and no way to pay it. We are able to make payments, but with zero income, my savings are depleted, and we have no way to pay it off. Dogmeat is healing wonderfully, but we are not out of the woods financially. To keep his recovery trajectory going up, we need help. He still needs medications, physical therapy, follow ups, etc., on top of the large bill we still need to pay.
Please, anything you can spare helps. If you can’t donate, please share. We are barely hanging on and have so many bills due. We are begging, at this point.
Thank you.
Hi everyone. Unfortunately, we have reached this point. Dogmeat ne… Christiana Burch needs your support for Support Dogmeat’s L
