Jack is a 6-year-old Chocolate Labrador Retriever in Henderson, CO, who needs $5,000 for chemotherapy treatment.

Our sweet boy Jack has just been diagnosed with Lymphoma on January 2nd, 2020.

He’s almost 6 years old. He went from a dog wanting to eat everything to not wanting to eat at all.

A couple weeks ago he threw up his breakfast immediately after eating it. We originally thought maybe he had a stomach ache of some sort or ate too fast and that’d he’d be back to his normal self in no time. Well, over the next week or so, he was getting pickier with eating, barely wanting to eat his food and skipping meals. He stopped eating for about 3 days and we immediately booked a vet appointment and got him in that same day. (Unfortunately this all happened during the holidays)

On December 28th, 2019, when we took him to the vet, the vet noticed his lymph nodes around his neck were larger than normal, so they took a sample and submitted it to the CSU Veterinary Hospital. They also ran blood work as well as a tick test.

On December 30th, 2019, his blood work came back with elevated calcium and kidney levels. When the vet called on the 30th with the results of the bloodwork, she suggested we come in immediately for an ultrasound and X-ray.

We brought him in that same morning and they did both. They called us that afternoon to let us know unfortunately they believe he has Lymphoma based on what they saw on the ultrasound and X-ray, in addition to his bloodwork. Granted, we still hadn’t officially received the results from CSU yet.

Luckily, Jack had started eating again, but only wet food. The vet called December 31st, 2019, to let us know the tick test came back negative.

They called again on January 2nd, 2020, but with the news we were hoping not to receive. They called letting us know they received the results back and he does indeed have Lymphoma.

Today, January 8th, 2020, we took Jack to see an Oncologist at the Wheatridge Animal Hospital in Colorado. The Oncologist diagnosed Jack with Stage 3 Lymphoma (out of 5 Stages), meaning all of his lymph nodes in his body are affected.

The Oncologist recommended three treatment options for Jack.

1. LCHOP (the gold standard) chemo
2. Single-agent therapy with Doxorubicin
3. Prednisone

With thoughtful consideration, Irvin and I have decided to pursue LCHOP for Jack. Each letter representing a different drug that will be used. Most dogs typically respond well to chemotherapy with 80-90% of them achieving clinical remission.

The plan is that Jack will start a 25 week treatment. We will take him in weekly for 8 weeks and then every other week for 4 months. With LCHOP, the average survival is 12-14 months. However, no two dogs are the same and each will react differently to treatment. The Oncologist assured us that chemo is not as hard on dogs as it is for humans.

We’ve read stories online that dogs have gone into remission after LCHOP and have stayed in remission for 4 years and counting, but on the flip side, we have also read stories about dogs relapsing several months later.

With this decision, comes the unexpected financial burden placed on us.

The cost for the LCHOP treatment for Jack is estimated at $7K. We did not make this decision lightly and are going into this knowing we will be taking on a huge financial burden, but we feel as though Jack deserves a fighting chance.

You may be asking yourself why not go a cheaper route or why spend $7K on a dog?

Well, the decision for us is a no-brainer. Jack was our first furbaby out of 3 dogs. It’s hard to put into words what Jack means to us.

Irvin adopted Jack when he was a puppy. When Irvin and I started dating, Jack was almost 2 years old. Jack has been part of all of our major milestones. From our first apartment, to our first house, both of our college graduations and many more.

Jack has acted as an unofficial emotional support animal over the years. Anyone that has had the pleasure of meeting Jack knows that Jack loves attention. He loves to cuddle and will give you hugs on-demand.

Jack was born a fighter, for those of you who do not know, Jack was shot on a farm when he was a puppy, left for dead on a freezing winter day. The other dog did not survive, but Jack did. We have no doubt that Jack will kick cancers behind.

We can’t imagine life without Jack and neither can our other two dogs.

Irvin and I would be beyond grateful for any help, every dollar makes a difference.