Corgi Mom Tricia would like to tell you more about her rescue girl Millie (as told on The Daily Corgi).

"We found Millie, an eight year-old Pem, through North Texas Corgi Rescue. Despite the report we got about her vision, behavior and allergy problems -- along with biting issues -- we decided to meet her. Since her husband's passing a year earlier, Millie's owner had grown tired of dealing with the dog's problems. Millie -- who was her husband's dog -- had been on steroids for years and was 45 pounds when we found her. The rescue group saved her and we were on board! Today she's a healthy 29 pounder. We began trying to problem-solve for all of Millie's issues and find a way to win her over. We started bonding with her over cookies and teaching her how to play with toys -- she had no idea what a toy was! From the start, Millie was terrible about going to the bathroom, holding it in for hours and sometimes days. After getting her checked by our regular vet, we found a chiropractic and acupuncture vet. Following her first chiro adjustment, Millie walked out and did all of her business! Because of her herniated disks, going to the bathroom was painful for her. She now gets regular adjustments and acupuncture, and her behavior is totally changed. Her true, amazing Corgi personality emerged gradually, as she discovered a life without neck and back pain. Being out of pain is a great thing!

The next thing we did was tackle Millie's vision problems. We found the best veterinarian ophthalmologist in Austin, who started her on a regimen of several kinds of eye drops everyday. Although things improved, over time she was losing some of the vision she had left. After a couple of years the steroids, pain meds and eye drops weren't doing the job anymore. We were referred to a neurologist who told us Millie has some kind of brain disease (maybe tumor or GME). An MRI was required to make a true diagnosis, but the necessary anesthesia posed a high risk. After exhausting all other options we made the decision for Millie to have eye surgery, despite the risk of anesthesia. We brought in a veterinarian anesthesiologist specialist and Millie did great! Her procedure went well and she seemed to be healing, but after a week things didn't seem quite right. The ophthalmologist found that the incisions around the prosthetics in her eyes weren't holding, and was very concerned about infection moving into Millie's brain.

Our girl was rushed into emergency surgery a few hours later, and although she did well in surgery, the vet had determined her eyes had to be removed and stitched closed. We'd worked for over a year to avoid this, and despite doing absolutely everything in our power, we couldn't save them. She doesn't feel sorry for herself though. She just lives life to the fullest! We won't put her through extreme procedures at this point but we do want to understand fully what her current condition is and be able to make the best decisions based on what she would want. She really suffered through her two eye surgeries and we are determined to minimize her suffering while providing her every opportunity to live as long as her resilient Corgi self wants to fight.

It was recently discovered that Millie had a tumor behind her ear. When we took her to the vet they did a CSF tap and get fluid to send for analysis. The tumor behind her ear was removed as well as a lymphnode. She did get a consult with another oncology surgeon she works with and that surgeon felt the ear canal needed to be removed because of the tumor's close proximity. She called us from the OR and we didn't feel that was right for Millie. It was a hard descision but in the end it was the right one as our surgeon felt good about leaving it and not leaving behind any tumor cells. Currently she has s drainage tube to make certain that no air pockets develop. This is what needs to be cleaned and redressed several times a day.

Then we got some good news and some bad news... Good news: The CSF tap came back normal. No GME and no other neurological or inflammatory issues that would be found in this test. That was great! Bad news: The tumor was malignant and had spread into the lymph node that she removed. This of course is not what we were hoping for. We have an appointment on Monday to discuss what the pathology findings mean as well as what the next steps are. The surgeon felt very good about getting out what she did so I am hopeful she got everything but we don't know.

Millie is feeling very good right now. Her allergies are making things in the healing department hard to manage but other than that she is her same silly self! The drainage tube from her surgery came out and is healing well. So that is all good. We will start her chemo once her incisions are fully healed, probably in another 1-2 weeks. Next week we meet with the radiation vet to review those options but honestly, from what our oncology surgeon told us we are currently thinking that won't be right for her. We're going into the appointment open minded but there are alot of risks and alot of issues with quality of life. Millie is a fighter but she also hates all this treatment so we are working to find the best balance between giving her the absolute best chance to beat this crap and maintain her quality of life. She loves life and to watch her suffer is so painful."

Millie's extensive testing, diagnosis and treatment have pushed CorgiPals' financial aid to the limit of $8,000. She will be starting chemotherapy soon and I will post regular updates on her progress as I receive them. Please keep this sweet girl in your thoughts and prayers, and share her story so we can help her get the care she needs!

http://corgipals.org/Fundraisers/TheBaxterValentineFund/Millie.aspx