This 8-Year-Old Dog Named Elliot Is About To Go Through His Third Round Of Cancer Treatment
I’ve been a pet owner most of my life. Growing up, we’ve always had cats and dogs to hug and play with in my family’s home. With the joy of loving a pet comes the sadness of losing them when they get extremely sick or very old.
One dog mom is dealing with cancer in her 8-year-old dog named Elliot. It’s not the first time, but the third time that they have faced cancer.
Rachel Ogilvie, the dog mom of Elliot, is organizing a GoFundMe to help pay for Elliot’s treatment.
“Where do I even BEGIN on describing this dog? If you’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting him, you already know this man has the biggest heart,” Rachel says.
“He wants nothing more than to share his love with others and cuddle up on your chest like a little puppy. We jokingly call him a velcro dog because he would love nothing more than to be glued to my side. I’ll wake up sometimes to him just staring into my eyes with the most loving look I’ve ever seen.”
Elliot’s cancer journey started in 2018 when Rachel found a tumor when he was 4 years old. Like many people, she ended up going down a Google search rabbit hole that lead her to think that she was going to lose her precious boy.
“But Elliot is a guy who is full of surprises, and he took the surgery like a champ,” Rachel explains.
“The first couple of days were rough. Bottling feeding an almost 100-pound dog, watching him struggle to get up to go pee, his yearning to play with his sister, Maggies, and just too weak to move. But within a week, he was back to himself.”
GoFundMe; pictured above is Elliot
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The next round of cancer came back in 2020; smaller tumors grew throughout his body, with a larger baseball-sized one on his armpit. They were removed in 2021 in one big surgery.
“I was having intrusive thoughts that he was too old to handle another surgery; I felt cruel making him go through it again,” she continues.
“But as he is full of surprises, Elliot bounced back to himself a record 2 days after surgery!”
After going through 2 rounds of cancer treatment, you would hope that Elliot had beat cancer and he’d be able to live the rest of his life basking in the sun and playing to his heart’s content without having to go through the treatment again.
“Here we are in 2022, and Elliot is now 8 years old! He recently had swelling in his back leg, which turned out to be a dissecting tumor — essentially meaning that the tumor is growing between the two muscles in his back leg,” Rachel explains.
“This surgery is going to be more complicated than his last two, which were surface tumors, because they’ll need to peel back a layer of muscle, remove the tumor, and reattach the muscle after.”
Cancer treatment for humans is expensive, and the same can be said for our canine and feline friends. Just like people, Elliot has had a lot of medical bills over his 8-years of life for cancer treatment, broken bones, bones lodged in his throat, and several other things.
At this point, Rachel has taken on a lot of debt, making sure her boy has the best life he can.
Rachel isn’t one to ask for help, but it does sometimes take a village to care for oneself and one’s pet.
I can relate to Rachel; I tend to feel like a burden if I ever ask for help, so I often take on everything myself. She has taken a big step in asking for help with Elliot’s 3rd round of cancer treatment.
“This round of surgery and treatment is going to be a lot more expensive than the last because of how complicated the area the tumor is growing,” she concludes.
“So here I am, against all instincts, asking for help for my guy! Even if that help is just moral support. I tend to isolate myself when these things happen, and I am growing to realize how nice it feels to have people there to support you in times of hardship. I will keep everyone updated on vet visits and surgery plans! Right now aiming to have surgery done around late September/early October.”
To have the strength to go through this type of situation not once or twice but for a third time is amazing. I hope that everything goes well for Elliot and Rachel when the time for the surgery comes.
You can read more about Elliot here.
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