Rocky
Rocky is a 6 1/2 year old red male Doberman who lives in Reading, PA with his "mom", Sandy Baer,
her son and dad, his litter mate, Hercules, Aisha, a Bovier/Rott mix, and 4 senior cats. Rocky and Hercules were
rescued by Sandy when they were only 9 months old. Rocky is an important member of the Baer family. When
Sandy was working at a nursing home, Rocky would accompany her to work and had his own job of cheering up
the residents. Rocky now has a new job at home - that of helping to care for Sandy's dad, who is disabled and
bedridden much of the time. Rocky will stay by his bed to keep him company, and on occasion is rewarded with
fork-fulls of "Grampa's" dinner!
Recently, Rocky was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. Sandy approached us shortly after Rocky was diagnosed,
but it has taken some time to pin the vets down in regard to the methods and cost of treatments.
Initially, Sandy's regular vet referred her to a surgeon, who planned to amputate Rocky's leg, and then send him to an oncologist
to follow with chemotherapy. That plan was changed however, when he had his first visit with oncologist,
Ann Jeglum. She determined that because Rocky is vWd affected, with a very slow clotting time, surgery
would be too risky. She felt a better approach would be to start out with Radiation and follow up with chemotherapy.
The two doctors conferred and agreed on this treatment plan. Rocky's radiation therapy will run about
$2,000 and the chemo will come to $2420.00 for alternating doses of adriamycin and cisplatin.
Sandy is a single mom with a teenage son, her disabled father, along with all of the fur-kids in her care.
She did not qualify for the Care-Credit (veterinary expense) credit card that was offered by her veterinarian, and now
needs our help to insure that Rocky gets the treatment that he needs. To make matters even worse,
while she was trying to work things out for Rocky, Hercules went down with Wobblers!
He is currently on prednisone which will be followed with 6 weeks of crate rest. This will coincide with
Rocky's radiation treatments, so they will be convalescing together!
If you would like to help Rocky, you can mail us a donation or use the
PayPal button below if you would like to make a tax-deductible donation
online. We thank you for any help that you can offer - every penny counts!
Updates:
July 5, 2004 - Rocky has gone to the Bridge
