I have a feeling that as Boomer gets older he’s going to develop more and more lumps. Some of them might be mast cell tumors while others will just be lumps and bumps that come with getting older.
The second lump we had checked out on Saturday turned out to be just a harmless little growth thing. It’s something to watch but nothing to be concerned about now.
Whew… we’re in the clear!
Despite having to wear his matching cone of shame with his yellow collar and leash on walks (I think he looks rather stylish) and the itchiness of the healing Boomer is doing well.
His fur is growing back in and he’ll get his sutures out this Thursday. This means the cone of shame can be removed and thank god because he’s been scratching up the furniture and doors and ramming us in the back of the legs with it (probably as a punishment for having to wear it.)
Cancerous lump we beat you!
Now everybody can do a celebratory wiggle!
More than anything I’m just so glad he’s OK. I love my Boomer Sooner dog, he’s such a sweetheart and honestly I don’t know what I’d do without my goofy chocolate boy.
Boomer has the best veterinarian in the world. Yes, it’s that simple. Dr. Lori is knowledgeable and honest and of course compassionate. It’s obvious she loves her work. So when she told me last week that the cells from the aspirate taken from the lump I found on Boomer’s neck looked bad and was possibly a mast cell tumor I told her to operate. I have complete faith in her and her abilities.
Before she even started she told me what to expect. She said that they would have to shave a huge patch of fur, that the incision was going to be large and that he was going to be a little uncomfortable for a day or two and then would start to scratch as the area healed. (The cone of shame had to come out because she was right, he has started to scratch.)
She also told me that it would take 3 – 5 days to get the results. I’ve counted the days and hoped the information would come sooner rather than later and it has.
I got the phone call yesterday right as I was getting ready for a long workout at the gym. By the time I was off the phone I just wanted to jump in my car, drive home and snuggle on the couch with Boomer for the rest of the day.
As it turns out Dr. Lori was right, it was a mast cell tumor. It was staged as a grade I which is usually the least likely to metastasize. The margins were clean and excision was the only treatment needed. So it appears that other than itchiness from a healing incision Boomer will be OK.
It’s my understanding that mast cell tumors can be quite common. And, that if a dog has one there is a greater chance that more will develop over the dog’s lifetime. If they are caught early enough surgical excision is usually enough of a treatment.
This is excellent news!
Yes, Boomer had a cancerous lump growing on him but it appears we caught it in time. Now the main thing to do is check him over from time to time to make sure other tumors don’t show up and if they do, remove them.
Having said that I should tell you that I did find another lump a few days ago, this time on his chest, it looks different and feels different from this last one but Dr. Lori is still going to check it out this weekend when we take Dottie for her bi-monthly laser treatment for arthritis.
Our fingers are crossed that this is nothing more than a harmless little thing and not another tumor. I’ll let you know what we find out, but in the mean time thank you for all your support, it’s been very much appreciated!
We woke up on Friday morning just like any normal day. The alarm went off and John got up to feed Boomer and Dottie, got ready for work, gave me a kiss and left. Boomer jumped in bed with me for a little snuggle and Dottie even joined in which is something extremely rare. It was nice until I felt it… IT.
My eyes shot open, I jumped out of bed, switched on a light, grabbed my glasses and started combing through Boomer’s fur. Then I found it, a lump, tiny but a lump none the less. At first I thought it was a zit or an ingrown hair but it felt strange and I was worried.
It was time for Boomer’s senior exam which I can’t believe I’m even saying because it seems like it was just yesterday I was holding him in my lap on our way home from Oklahoma but he will be 10 years old this June. Man… time flies…
So back to the senior exam, I scheduled it for that morning, I wanted to make sure it was nothing to worry about over the weekend. When it came time to leave the house Dottie was beside herself wanting to come along for a ride but I made her stay. I could hear her crying in the kitchen as I loaded Boomer in the car, it breaks my heart to hear that but I had to get Boomer sorted.
At the vet Boomer was so well-behaved. Normally he has a bit of a fit when you touch his feet or lift his tail to examine but he just stood there giving kisses. He didn’t even mind when blood was taken or an aspirate was done on the lump. He got a lot of praise and biscuits for that!
The aspirate showed some dark cells, in other words, bad cells that concerned our veterinarian. So this little lump was something to be concerned about, it was possibly a mast cell tumor. My first response was, “Get it off. Now.â€Â Dr. Lori, I hope I wasn’t too rude when I made those demands! Luckily there was an opening that afternoon and our veterinarian could do the procedure then and send the tumor off to K-State for testing.
It’s not easy to hand over a leash when you know something is wrong with your dog but I gave him a kiss on the nose and told him I’d be back later and led him into a run one of his favorite technicians Sarah had made up for him complete with padding and blankets.
I called my hubby at work and told him Boomer wasn’t coming home with me from the vet because surgery was needed and I explained everything I knew and that now it was just a waiting game for surgery to be over and then we still needed to get the results back.
When I got the call that surgery was over and that it went well I was relieved and even more so that I could pick Boomer up later in the evening so he wouldn’t have to spend the night there. I didn’t want him in an unfamiliar place overnight having just gone through surgery, I know other dogs do it all the time but I wanted to have him at home so I could take care of him.
When we got to the office to pick him up he was still really drowsy and was unsteady on his legs a bit. More than anything he was happy to see us and ready to go home. John was surprised at how big the area was that had been shaved and excised. He even joked that Boomer had wandered into a bad barber college for a hair cut. After instructions on pain meds, when to have the sutures removed and when to expect the results we were on our way home.
Dottie was so glad to see her Boomer dog come through the door. All she wanted to do was sniff him all over and give him kisses. Unfortunately she thought his sutures needed licking and had to be scolded.
When it was time for bed we put a baby gate up in the door to our bedroom so Boomer would have to stay in our room and sleep with us. It’s strange the one time we ask him to sleep in our bed he won’t, but when he’s not supposed to he jumps up there anyway. Go figure!
Instead of the comfy spot we made for him on our bed he thought sleeping on the floor next to me was OK. But man, was it ever a long night because he would cry every now and then and whimper and that would wake me up and being the mommy I am had to check on him. Needless to say I needed a nap the next day I was up so much!
After getting quite a bit of sleep the next day and a full meal in his belly Boomer has pretty much recovered from his surgery. I can tell the incision is starting to heal because he’s wanting to scratch at it which means we’ve had to bring out the dreaded cone of shame, aka the lampshade. It’s yellow so it matches his collar and leash… I’m not sure if that was planed or not… but he certainly makes a fashion statement!
I still don’t have any news on what we’re dealing with but I hope it’s nothing serious and I’d like to ask, if I may, all my blog buddies to hope for the same. I’ll post an update later this week once we have some results. So cross those fingers and paws for us if you would!
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