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have a tumor, why the f not.

egoldstein said:
Sometimes finding a new vet for the tumors can be helpful, just as with doctors some are better than others at specific problems.
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Having faced these situations many many times at my age, I have to agree with this advice. But don't frame it as not trusting your current vet, but just looking for a specialist.
 
nekdoneco123 said:
i found a random bulge in one of my girl's teats, made an appointment at the vet immediately. the vet also found another much smaller one between her front legs. took a sample of both for biopsy. results came in today. the larger one is malign, the smaller one is "inconclusive".

the plan was to cut out both for further testing (how likely it is there's more than the two, how likely it is to reappear) and spay her too, but that's the price i'm willing to pay for more time with her.
she went into heat three days ago... extra blood circulating in her teats and overall hormonal imbalance caused by it means no surgery.
got told to make an appointment two months after the heat cycle ends to see if the surgery is still possible/relevant (whatever the bigger bastard didn't eat too much of her).
she's almost nine and how/if she handles anesthesia is another fun thing to think about.

not knowing if i'm making another rainbow bridge post soon or not (i sure as fuck am not ready for her to go) is the best feeling in the world...
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Now that just about sucks... Brace yourself as best you can, guy - in my experience, that shit moves FAST once it gets going.

I worked for some folks who had a dane bitch that went that way, and at about the same age - Discovered a teat-lump roughly the size of your typical marble, vet carved it out, and all seemed as well as could be expected as they waited for the biopsy results. Malignant, of course. Followup visit at 6 weeks, new lump about the size of a pea in another teat, and at least a dozen head-of-a-pin sized bumps (you really had to hunt for them, and when you found one, the first thought was "might be a tick?" - we were in terrain where it was basically impossible to go outside and NOT come back in with at least 2 or 3 of the little bloodsuckers on you) randomly scattered, just under the skin. Doesn't look good - Shoot some X-rays. The pics of her lungs had so many spots it looked like she'd been hit with half a dozen loads of buckshot from close range. Too many tumors in too many places to even attempt surgery. A month later, she had marble-sized bumps everywhere the pin-head sized tumors were spotted, and several the size of golf balls in assorted other places. About another month after that, they decided to pull the plug when she went off her chow and started hacking up blood. At least it was fast... That's the only good thing that can be said of it...

Good luck, guy...
 
nekdoneco123 said:
because the tumors (the ones found or the possible additional ones) can react to the hormonal changes of heats or fake pregnancies.
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What about hormonal changes caused by the spay?

Anyway, I really hope that the yesterday's surgery went fine and wish you both luck.
 
No, that's terrible news! I hope everything goes well today and I wish you all the strength and a speedy recovery for her.
 
just got back with her. surgery went well. i was told "if we don't call, come pick her up in four hours. if we call, there's complications". i don't think i ever hypnotized my phone harder.
they took out both tumors along with her uterus (which i was told was lined with up to 1cm large cysts). rest of her insides are clear. they did an xray before the procedure and "checked her insides" during the procedure.
bed rest and little movement is in order for the next few days and i have to keep her separate from the boys so they don't try to lick her wounds.

she got the biggest cone i've ever seen and seems to be mad at me.. then again, it can be the morphine
UR20Z said:
Now that just about sucks... Brace yourself as best you can, guy - in my experience, that shit moves FAST once it gets going.

I worked for some folks who had a dane bitch that went that way, and at about the same age - Discovered a teat-lump roughly the size of your typical marble, vet carved it out, and all seemed as well as could be expected as they waited for the biopsy results. Malignant, of course. Followup visit at 6 weeks, new lump about the size of a pea in another teat, and at least a dozen head-of-a-pin sized bumps (you really had to hunt for them, and when you found one, the first thought was "might be a tick?" - we were in terrain where it was basically impossible to go outside and NOT come back in with at least 2 or 3 of the little bloodsuckers on you) randomly scattered, just under the skin. Doesn't look good - Shoot some X-rays. The pics of her lungs had so many spots it looked like she'd been hit with half a dozen loads of buckshot from close range. Too many tumors in too many places to even attempt surgery. A month later, she had marble-sized bumps everywhere the pin-head sized tumors were spotted, and several the size of golf balls in assorted other places. About another month after that, they decided to pull the plug when she went off her chow and started hacking up blood. At least it was fast... That's the only good thing that can be said of it...

Good luck, guy...
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we knew both tumors were malignant before the surgery. the question is whatever they plan on making a cameo sometime down the line.
Sheppermutt said:
I know you were just wishing good luck, but I really don't think anyone needed to read that. I actually feel sick. If I was in nekdoneco's position I especially don't think that would make me feel better.
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i don't think he ment it in some "bad" way. also, it's almost a copy paste of how my girl's mother went. only difference being that her owner went to visit the vet with her after she started hacking up blood. she was full of tumors.
 
That's great news, do you have to take her back in a few months to check if anything has reappeared, or what happens from here?

I hope she recovers fast from the op. and can get back to being a happy girl again.

Oh and I'm sure she will want to get that damned cone off that every dog I know hates, but needs to have if fitted in such circumstances. I think apart from being annoying because it keeps hitting things when the dog tries to walk through narrower places, the shape also funnels more sound in towards the ears which can be not nice if they are sound sensitive while recovering and want to rest.
 
nekdoneco123 said:
just got back with her. surgery went well. i was told "if we don't call, come pick her up in four hours. if we call, there's complications". i don't think i ever hypnotized my phone harder.
they took out both tumors along with her uterus (which i was told was lined with up to 1cm large cysts). rest of her insides are clear. they did an xray before the procedure and "checked her insides" during the procedure.
bed rest and little movement is in order for the next few days and i have to keep her separate from the boys so they don't try to lick her wounds.
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All this is good news! Thank-you for your update.
 
HugDoggy said:
That's great news, do you have to take her back in a few months to check if anything has reappeared, or what happens from here?
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watch her teats very closely and check in with anything out of the ordinary. i'll be told more, hopefully in two weeks and not sooner when we go to have the stitches removed. right now i'm supposed to call them with her status every two days.
 
got home today to find her laying on her side, breathing heavily. the teat they operated on is engorged, but not red. she drinks, but doesn't eat and is kinda apathetic. called the vet, he asked for photos and after consulting it with other vets on the clinic decided i should watch her over night and come visit first thing in the morning, rush her to emergency if she worsens. i moved her to my bed so she doesn't just lay on the floor.

why would anything just go well for once....
 
nekdoneco123 said:
got home today to find her laying on her side, breathing heavily. the teat they operated on is engorged, but not red. she drinks, but doesn't eat and is kinda apathetic. called the vet, he asked for photos and after consulting it with other vets on the clinic decided i should watch her over night and come visit first thing in the morning, rush her to emergency if she worsens. i moved her to my bed so she doesn't just lay on the floor.

why would anything just go well for once....
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Oh...geez, I'm so sorry. Please let us know what's happening...keeping my hopes up for both of you.
 
nekdoneco123 said:
got home today to find her laying on her side, breathing heavily. the teat they operated on is engorged, but not red. she drinks, but doesn't eat and is kinda apathetic. called the vet, he asked for photos and after consulting it with other vets on the clinic decided i should watch her over night and come visit first thing in the morning, rush her to emergency if she worsens. i moved her to my bed so she doesn't just lay on the floor.

why would anything just go well for once....
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Well that is not good! I hope she doesn't get any worse before the morning so you can take her in to see her usual vet. Getting an Emergency department involved can be costly and may mean explaining a lot of stuff. But obviously if she needs to go, you have to do what is best for her. Good luck and I hope she improves or at least is able to settle and get some rest.
 
so, the hole eaten out by the tumor and partially the space left behind by her late uterus got filled with fluid (no puss involved, a good thing). it probably pushed on her insides which is what made her sort of shutdown. vet fully drained it. no signs of infection, her temperature is normal. we got a bunch of pills for the next few days. i'm staying home with her today and watch her and take her to have it drained if anything builds up again.
she started eating again when we got home.

even tho we're not out of the woods yet, having the stitches pulled out on monday is still planned.
 
SaltyDog said:
Thank U 4 sharing these things with us. I'm sure it helps U 2 B able to share in a safe place... and it helps the community here with the opportunity of learning about such things vicariously. And, while not out of the woods yet, I can see there's room 4 guarded optimism.
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i wouldn't really go with safe place. it just feels different to share this here, among ppl who understand what truly is at stake here. other than here, it's only my mother who realizes what my girl means to me to some degree.. other than that, it's just a sea of variations on "i wouldn't have paid so much for operation of a dog" "get a new one" like she's a pair of jeans or something.
 
the fluid built up a little over night again. i called the vet first thing in the morning and they told me they ran tests on what the stuff they drained earlier is. i don't really remember the name, but apparently it consists of something that's supposed to be there and i shouldn't worry about a little residual build up. it should dissipate on it's own as she heals.

what worries me a bit more is that i found a new lump on her left cheek today, it 1000% wasn't there a week ago. we'll look into that on monday...
 
Poor girl she can't catch a break. Hopefully the new lump won't be a bad one and the fluid stops causing her any discomfort or swelling up.
 
I'm so sorry you two have to go though all of this! The fluid build-up sound very uncomfortable for her to say the least, hopefully it will be gone soon.
Keeping my fingers crossed that the lump on her cheek is unrelated to the tumor.
 
she was so uncomfortable during the night she literally slept sitting down with just her head resting on the bed. woke up to very loud whining, one of the stitches gave out and everything that built up inside came out. rushed her to vet, they drained what was left, removed one of the stitches and flushed the wound with disinfectant. they gave me the instruments to keep flushing it at least twice a day for the next few days...

the lump is very likely just an engorged lymphatic node which might be a reaction to the medications.
 
nekdoneco123 said:
she was so uncomfortable during the night she literally slept sitting down with just her head resting on the bed. woke up to very loud whining, one of the stitches gave out and everything that built up inside came out. rushed her to vet, they drained what was left, removed one of the stitches and flushed the wound with disinfectant. they gave me the instruments to keep flushing it at least twice a day for the next few days...

the lump is very likely just an engorged lymphatic node which might be a reaction to the medications.
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Sorry to hear that she had a bad night. Hope things get better real soon!
 
nekdoneco123 said:
she was so uncomfortable during the night she literally slept sitting down with just her head resting on the bed. woke up to very loud whining, one of the stitches gave out and everything that built up inside came out. rushed her to vet, they drained what was left, removed one of the stitches and flushed the wound with disinfectant. they gave me the instruments to keep flushing it at least twice a day for the next few days...

the lump is very likely just an engorged lymphatic node which might be a reaction to the medications.
Click to expand...
It sounds like she is not in a good way, It must be so draining for both of you at the moment (damn... sorry I didn't mean that pun, it's late and can't think how else to say that.) How are you coping though, it's been such an emotional roller coaster. And the healing process for her seems to be hitting every pot hole in the road at the moment it must be very hard. My thoughts continue to be with the two of you.
 
I'm so sorry to hear this. She is just having a hella bad time. Here to a seamless recovery from here on out.
 
hopefully a final update
she had to wear a fully body tubular net bandage for a while, it helped keep the wound tight. as it healed and tightened, less and less of the fluid built up and finally, yesterday we got an "all healed and clear" and the cone and the bandage came off. she slept for like twelve hours straight when we got home, she didn't get much of it with the cone.

looks like we won, for the time being
 
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