Today marks another milestone in my dog’s life! Three years ago today she had an amputation to cure her of a cancerous tumor (spindle cell sarcoma) and to celebrate I put a little slideshow capturing her active senior life over these years! Even at the ripe age of 12.5 she is still happy and healthy, with the exception of her arthritis starting to kick in a bit. Three cheers for three years as a three legged dog! Go Chloe!

So before I relay what the vet said about Chloe’s lump biopsy results, I just wanted to give you a recap on her surgery recovery so far.

On Monday Chloe went in for the surgery and everything went smoothly. There is always a bit of concern when putting a dog under, especially older dogs (hence doing bloodwork beforehand), so I was glad to hear she came out of it well! After a few more hours of waiting before I could pick her up, I got to speak with the vet specialist/surgeon. He said that he was able to remove the entire lump, though he had wished he could have gotten a slightly larger margin of tissue around one end of the lump.  Part of it was close to a major vein going up the back of the leg, so he didn’t want to risk cutting too close. For the closure, she has internal stitches for the tissue (dissolvable) as well as external stitches to close the wound. Then he told me I would find out the results Friday or Monday and then proceed from there if needed. Also, her teeth cleaned up nicely (one gum area was starting to recede) and she didn’t need the antibiotics that he had originally thought.  Apparently some dogs have lots of gum bleeding and require antibiotics in case of infection.  Chloe’s didn’t have any problems (yay!).

When we were reunited, she was SO happy (as was I) and then when we went outside to go to the car, she took the longest pee of her life. Seriously almost a full minute! All that IV fluid was making its way through her system and she is the kind of dog who pee in a kennel or on the floor, she waits to do it on dirt (such a good girl!). Literally within a half hour of getting home and the excitement of not being at the vet anymore wearing off, Chloe was konked out on the couch and snoring slightly.  Just before bed she was whining a bit more than usual (apparently she had to pee really badly again), but I took pity on her anyway and let her sleep on my bed with me.  This is not a normal thing for us because 1. I like having a non hairy bed and 2. I have a twin.  Tall person + 60lb dog + twin bed = someone doesn’t sleep well.  In the wee hours of the morning, Chloe got up from the foot of the bed and tried to lay alongside/cuddle nearly pushing me off the bed.  But all in all we managed! And in case you haven’t figured it out yet, I have no qualms about spoiling my dog once in a while 🙂

Overall her recovery has been smooth an uneventful (aka no bad surprises!). The stitched area had a just a bit of redness and swelling when I picked her up, but since then it has gone away and looks good for a stitched leg! I only put the cone on at night or when I leave since she does like to lick her front leg shaved area where they put in the IV.  Thankfully she’s not interested in her stitches, but at the same time I don’t want to risk her deciding to lick them out… They are scheduled for removal on the 24th (recommend after 10-14 days), but I’m getting them out on the sooner end (11 days) so she doesn’t need to use the cone of shame longer than needed…

Results: The lump was benign!

To quote the vet (had to listen to message a couple times):

Just got the biopsy result back from the lab and wanted to give you the good news. This is a benign condition, technicially its not even a tumor, but its essentially a conglomerate of glandular material accumulating within the skin and that tissue right below the skin.  Its technically called fibroadnexil dysplasia. The take home message is that this was removed completely,  its completely benign, it should not regrow, so all in all I think this is great news.

For more information, I tried looking up fibroadnexil dysplasia, but really the vet described it best.  So, its NOT cancer and I am SO HAPPY! YEA! For some picture fun, I put in one of my older picture song videos of Chloe (her 6 month ampuversary celebration to “Dog Days are Over”)

Thank you all for thinking pawsitve thoughts and keeping your fingers crossed for Chloe during this time! All the support is GREATLY appreciated, you guys are the best!

Hello Tripawd Community!

For those of you who haven’t seen this in the forums, I know its been so long since I last posted, but Chloe had her yearly checkup last week and the vet said that the small, hard, lump on her remaining hind limb is suspicious (found it a couple months ago)…

 Mind you she is 12 yrs old and has 3 lipomas, 2 little warts, and a skin tag, all benign, but this lump needs to be biopsied/removed to check for malignancy.  2.5 years ago she was diagnosed with a non excisable cancer, (LARGE spindle cell sarcoma tumor) that wouldn’t respond well to chemo or radiation, so ergo she lost a leg to provide an ‘instant cure’. However, dramatic solutions like that are no longer viable options. So lets keep hoping for benign!

Her yearly bloodwork/physical indicated that she is in otherwise excellent health for her age, which is really good news, so I just ask that from today until I get the phone call about her lab results to please think pawsitive thoughts for Chloe! We are hoping for a trifecta of  1. surgery/anaesthesia goes well 2. recovery from procedure goes well (minus cone of shame) and 3. that the lab results indicate the lump is BENIGN or that any follow up treatments don’t require chemo or radiation.  As a personal decision, I wouldn’t want to put her through either of those last options considering all the little things we deal with on a daily basis like scary train noises, slippery floors, hob-a-long walks… so if faced with unfavorable results, I would want to make her as comfortable and as spoiled as possible.  Thank you and I’ll be nervously trying to do thesis work in a local coffee shop during her procedure/wake up sleepy time period.

P.S. The lump is along the hairline of her upper back right leg (transition between outer leg and inner leg), is about the size of a large pea and is under the skin. Its not on muscle or connective tissue, so there is a good margin for excision.

Think happy dog thoughts for Chloe today!