Rhody Has Surgery
Having a pet, a dog especially, is rewarding is so many ways. If you are a dog lover or own a dog, you know what I’m talking about here.
But, just like us, there are so many risks too. I wrote here just about seven years ago when T.J. and I had to make the hard decision to put our first golden down. It was the first dog we had gotten together before kids. She was just shy of five years old when she past and Gabriella, our oldest was just shy of 14 months old.
It really rocked our world as it was shocking and unexpected. We waited a while before thinking about getting another dog.
Gabriella was about 2.5 years old when we welcomed Rhody into our family. He was a little pudge of fur and very excited to join us! He has moved with us, gone on vacation with us, welcomed two more babies with us, and is easily the sixth member of our family.
We are always mindful of his health. Especially so after the loss with suffered with our first golden. We feed him food that we think is best for his needs. We give him love and cuddles, keep him groomed and provide exercise and playtime. We keep him current with his annual well visit to the vet.
Over the summer of 2016 we noticed a growth under his fur. We brush him all the time, and mall him to bits. We always have and he loves all the attention. It felt like there was a little ping pong ball sitting under the skin high on his rear leg almost at the tailbone. We called the vet and tok him in because we needed to get it checked and see what was going on. If this hurting him? Was it serious? Will it get bigger?
The vet took a small biopsy of fluid from the growth and sent it out for testing. They also did some blood work and nothing showed. Nothing to worry about she said, but we should continue to monitor it and watch if it gets bigger or starts to bother him.
As the months went by, the mass seemed to start getting bigger and we noticed when he sat down on his bum he shifted to one side. The mass was kind of hard and round so imagine sitting on something like that? Not great.
We took Rhody back to the vet to see what the next move was and they suggest we schedule surgery to remove it. Of course this wasn’t something we want to do. A last resort for sure, but we want to do what is best for his health. We didn’t want to leave something growing inside of him that could possibly lead to something more serious.
Surgery was scheduled.
Rhody had his pre-op blood work this past Wednesday. His surgery was scheduled for Friday, yesterday at 7:45am. Of course, this would be the day after the BOMB CYCLONE that dropped a solid 12 inches of snow here Thursday. T.J. was out during the tail end of the blizzard in the dark clearing the driveway so he would be able to get Rhody to the vet early in the morning.
The kids were really upset to see him go in the morning. They were home all day from school and feeling the loss of his presence was hard.
When we got the call that he was in recovery and everything went well it was a huge relief. The doc was able to remove the mass easier than she though and overall the surgery took less time. The mass was sent out for further testing and we should know more results on Wednesday. I’m really trying to stay positive that it was a fluke thing that won’t return.
T.J picked Rhody up around dinner time. Poor guy was really not himself and very whiny and sad. We did manage to get him to eat a bit and drink some water. He had been on a fast since Thursday night. The kids took it really hard when they saw his wound and how sad and hurt he was.
Last night was rough. He couldn’t settle down or get comfortable to sleep. He just keep staring at us and whimpering. It was so heartbreaking. We tried to cuddle him and get him settled and eventually he got some sleep after 11pm.
He is on pain meds for 5 days.
Today he seems a bit better. He is moving around a little bit better and definitely not as whiney. It will be a long 10 days of keeping his cone on except for when he eats and goes outside. His staples will come out and the cone will come off and then it should be smooth sailing from there.
Please send some positive healing vibes for our favorite furry guy while he recovers.
