red paper boat

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.