Marley’s Fight for Her Life

Marley is our 2 year old rescue from Mexico. She found us when she was 6 weeks old. She was very sick and alone.The moment we saw her it was love at first sight. We treated all of her issues, brought her back up to Canada and she was a happy healthy pup up until a few weeks ago.

Marley very suddenly lost all strength on the right side of her body and lost the ability to stand or walk. Over the next week with the help of many specialists we tested for everything possible.MRI’s and CT scans showed a mass in her upper sinus crossing into her brain cavity, so cancer seemed likely. The swelling was putting too much pressure on her brain which was causing the majority of her symptoms.The CT scan also showed a gap between the sinus and brain that should have been sealed. She underwent emergency surgery to remove what we now know was a giant abscess. It appeared that Marley had been hit quite severely in the head at quite a young age which caused the abnormality in her skull and allowed an infection to cross over into her brain. It breaks my heart to think that this could have been done on purpose (it is not uncommon in this area for people to dispose of a litter).Finally thinking that we were done, we brought Marley home to heal from her operation and started her on antibiotics to take care of the rest of the infection.

Culture samples were sent off to show exactly what started the infection. The results came back 2 days ago and were not what anyone expected. It turns out that she has an uncommon fugal infection.Due to the lack of barrier between her sinus and brain it was able to spread causing an extremely rare central nervous system infection.Marley needs many different medications as we fight this infection in her brain. She can fight this. But we need help. Her vet bills have reached $16,000 and she still requires more more treatment.