When my gorgeous girl Maggie went lame back in November, we initially thought she’d pulled a muscle after getting caught up in some bracken, but after not improving as much as she should have with trips to physio and pain relief, we investigated further with x-rays at the vets. The results were totally unexpected, to say the least. The word tumour was not something I thought I’d be hearing when the vet said, it’s bad news. Almost a week later, and after a referral to Dick Whites, cancer was confirmed. a cruel twist as this isn‘t usually found in fit two year old cocker spaniels!

A week after the x-rays, Maggie had her amputation at our normal vets in an effort to keep costs down so more of her insurance money could be put towards costly chemotherapy. Initally things seemed to go to plan…however the day Maggie came home she was still in a lot of pain and the wound was looking very inflamed. At her post op check on the Saturday, Antibiotics were started as she had slight temperature and additional pain relief prescribed, we hoped we were on the right track…little did we know something worse was brewing. The next day Maggie seemed to be in better spirits, she had more of an appetite and was getting used to skipping about on three legs. I‘d been keeping a close eye on the wound, and had noticed an area I was a little concerned about, thinking to mention it to the vets at our appointment the next day, however that evening it had erupted and there was a significant hole with a lot of fluid draining from it. It was decided it would be ok to wait for her appointment the next morning (Monday). The vet prescibed another set of antibiotics as looked like there was some infection in the discharge, and another recheck the next day. The next 24 hours saw me doing regular dressing changes, wound cleaning, and temperature checks 4 times a day to make sure there were no spikes. The next day it wasn’t looking much better so I decided it was time to bring in the big guns and contacted Dick Whites Referral hospital again, who advised to bring her in the following day.

And this is where the the story gets tough. The vet and I decided it would be best to open the site up again and see what was going on underneath that hole...a few hours later, another call came through…bad news again…the muscle and fatty tissue underneath had started to die off and had had to be extensively debrided right down to the bone. They weren’t able to close the site, as needed to have an open dressing which needed to be changed daily under sedation to try and get the necrosis under control. This went on for 7 days, over Christmas. We missed our girl so so much, but the vets said she was happy and wagging her tail, so we kept going. The day after boxing day, the vets were finally able to close the wound and fitted a drain with the hope that, if there was minimal drainage she would be able to come home a few days later and thankfully that was the case! Friday 29th December our girl was finally home.

And that brings us to now. A nine day stay in Dick Whites, with two general anaesthetics, daily dressing changes under sedation, barrier nursing because of the infection is not cheap. The insurance money is only able to cover £7000 of the bill, which combined with the initial x-rays, the amputation surgery, we have gone way over that £7k limit. While we have the money to cover this, it does mean that the chemotherapy that Maggie will need may not be achievable, which brings me to setting this Just Giving page up, with a plan of walking 100 miles over January - 100 Miles for Maggie. If people are able to sponsor me to do this, to help fund the next stage of Maggie’s treatment, I would be beyond grateful. This little dog deserves every extra day I can give her, she may not have a long time left with us, but I want to be able to give her the best time I can. Anything extra will go towards hydrotherapy and physiotherapy to help support her being on three legs.