Please consider donating to Redd’s veterinary care
so we can give him the cancer-free life he deserves.
Redd’s story started out standard enough for rescue. A friend of one of our fosters contacted her about her ex-husbands dog. He had a Doberman that had been relegated to the yard and that was in desperate need of vet care. He had found out that Redd had heartworms and instead of treating them, he just tossed him aside. After a lot of begging and pleading from both the ex-wife and the kids, he finally decided to turn him over to rescue so we could get him the help he needs.
Redd’s time in rescue has been nothing short of a roller coaster. We knew coming in that he had heartworms, but as soon as he arrived into rescue, his foster mom noticed he had trouble peeing. A trip to the vet identified a very aggressive and stubborn prostate infection that required an expensive medication to clear up. The vet believes that it started as a UTI that went untreated for quite some time. It took a couple of weeks but he is finally infection free! He also had a growth on his face that appeared to be a melanoma. During his neuter we had it removed and sent off to UGA for a biopsy. It came back malignant. With no treatment, he had a bleak prognosis of about 5 months. We knew this could not be how Redd’s story ended. This dog is the sweetest most wonderful dog you could ever meet. He loves everyone, kids and cats included, and wants nothing more than to wear his sweater and curl up in your lap. We brought him to see the Oncologists at BluePearl. Dr. Hamilton informed us that he felt he was a perfect candidate for a melanoma vaccine that they had been using for several years. With the vaccine Redd could live another 3 years or more and have no diminished quality of life and no side effects. We were ecstatic!! Finally, some good news for our sweet boy! But then we found out the cost. He will need the vaccine every other week for 8 weeks, which is a total of 4 times. After the build-up phase, he needs his vaccine once every 6 months. Every time the vaccine is administered, the cost is about $850. The build-up phase will cost a total of $3400. We want to do this for Redd. He deserves to have a life full of love and happiness, where he gets to be a family member instead of a neglected yard dog. But in order to do it, we need your help. $3600 is a hefty bill, and we have other dogs in rescue that need vetting as well. Redd’s vet bills have already totaled over $1500 for his neuter, UTI medication, vaccines, melanoma removal and biopsy. If you are able to, please consider donating to Redd’s care. If you can’t donate, please share his story so that others who can may see it. We have included Redd’s medical bills for full transparency.
Not many people know about the vaccine option (heck, we didn’t!) so we will be chronicling Redd’s journey in rescue both here on facebook and on our website to help educate pet owners on this option should they ever come face to face with a similar situation. We will be updating on Redd weekly with his progress and how he is doing. With his long term prognosis being several years, we will be putting him up for adoption once his build up phase is complete. We know it’s a long shot for someone to want to take on a dog that is known to have cancer and with a treatment of $850 every 6 months, but we believe his person is out there and that he will finally have a family of his own. If you are interested in adopting Redd when he is ready, please email us at adopt@georgiadobermanrescue.com