Category: Photography

Her stitches (the lower section) had me worried Sunday night.  They looked red and swollen.  I think I must have been hallucinating, though, because the next morning they looked fine. And today, they look great.

She still has two pockets of fluid, but they’re steadily shrinking. And if you look closely, you can see that the little green tattoo from her spay surgery is still visible between her staples.

The incision from the second surgery has been a lot grosser looking, so I haven’t been posting photos of it. Today, though, it finally looks good enough to share.

My mom came down for a quick visit last night. She was siting on the couch, eating radishes, and gave a piece to Piglet to sniff. He wasn’t going to actually eat it, but Frances wanted it, and my mom just wasn’t getting the message. Yes, my dog is begging for your radish. Obviously. I mean, just look at that face, will you?

Best. Dog. EVAR.

I asked Frances if she could lick out the empty peanut butter jar while wearing her cone. “What a ridiculous question!” she said. 

She hates having her incision iced, but not so much that she couldn’t fall asleep during it. 

Ice Pack Time

Ear up!

Meds Schedule

Frances is home again. She had a rough day. I expected the second surgery to be more difficult for her, because there was so little recovery time after the first one. She’s doing great, considering. 

Unfortunately the vet found a totally unrelated tumor on her vulva, when they were prepping her for surgery. They did a FNA, which contained mast cells. We won’t know for sure what it is until the histopathology report comes back, but it’s likely a mast cell tumor. Hopefully we caught it early and the vet got good margins, because mast cell tumors are malignant. 

Because of that, she’s on two extra meds this time:  Pepcid and Benadryl. Mast cell tumors cause increased histamine and stomach acid production.

In retrospect, I should have suspected there was something else wrong, because Frances has been itchy. She’s also done a lot of nighttime lip smacking the last week or so, which I ought to have realized meant her stomach was upset. Hindsight is 20/20, right?

Fourteen Days Post-op

The sutures and staples came out this morning. The vet said the incision looked good, so the second surgery is a go. They’ll call me when they’re finished with her, and assuming everything goes well, I’ll be able to pick her up tomorrow.

Frances gets her staples and sutures out tomorrow. If all goes well–and I don’t foresee any problems, but who knows with this dog?–she’ll also be having her second surgery to remove the rest of her mammary tumors.

I’ll be really glad to have this all over and done with.

Her incision keeps looking better and better. And while she hates the cone with the heat of ten thousand suns, she isn’t letting it get in the way of her begging.