Volos

Today I dropped Volos off for his surgery a little after 8am. 

He had 3 different lumps. Each of them were not alike in anyway.    With his history of MCTs, I told them to let the vet decide if any needed to be sent off for pathology.  She would know which, if any, were suspicious. 

His day started off wrong. He wanted to chew on his Pork Chomp, but I took it away this morning.  I wouldn't give him a brush chew. I wouldn't let him eat or drink.   

Then I take him to the vet.  He's already nervous because an early morning car ride is out of his normal routine.  Then in the vet he must have sensed my nervousness, because he was even more nervous than usual.   UGH!!

Of course I hated leaving him.

Came home to Peryn who was all alone. I don't think he's ever been home alone.   So he was quite happy to see Momma.

Peryn was quite happy at lunch and tried to continue play time long after lunch. Momma had to use Momma voice to get him to stop and lay down.  He would have kept going all afternoon if he had his way.

Just received the call from the vet. Surgery went well. They removed the 3 spots and the vet decided the one on his torso, by his leg, really should be sent for pathology.  I am not surprised the one she sent as that one was concerning to me as I've monitored its growth this past year.    

Prayers that the margins are clear AND that the grade of the tumor is low!!!!

I get to pick him up in 2 hours.  He will not be getting an E-collar nor a donut.  The wound on his neck cannot be "rubbed" the way the collar would. SO now I have to locate a turtleneck that would fit him. Oh the fun times I'm about to have. 

I'm relieved he made it through surgery.  

Looks like I am going to be taking Peryn to PetSmart with me to search for a sweater for my big Dude. 

Well, Peryn & I went to PetSmart to look for a sweater of Volos. 

Peryn fooled everyone into thinking he's this sweet quite boy. HA!!    Little Jerk peed on a display thing while we were there. 

I did find the perfect sweater for Volos though. I also picked him up some new toys as his "Get Well/Forgive me" presents.

Dude is a little loopy. His one incision is swollen, but he was so relieved to leave there and get in the car to leave.  When we got home he was quite pleased with my offerings. 

Oh, and he looks so handsome in his sweater.    And he better because the surgery was ....a lot.  Like much more than we thought. 

Right now, he & Peryn are checking each other out. Peryn is making sure Volos is ok.  Volos is unsure what he wants to do or go.    I'm just glad to have him home.

We just need to wait for the results.

I'm going to go ice his one surgical site now and hopefully he'll chill out. 

I will keep you all posted on any news I hear.

Ziva update May 1

 Hey.   

Checking in to give you an update on Ziva. 

Didn't know you needed one???

As we came upon her 11th month, we knew we were getting close & finally scheduled her spay.

Because our luck is such that it is,  she actually began her heat cycle a few days prior.  Poor baby.

We checked in twice with the vet, the day it was discovered & when they called to confirm her appointment, if it was safe to happen with her beginning heat. 

There are many out there on the web that will tell  you to wait until the cycle is over. That you should NOT spay a dog in heat and give you so many reasons why.   

Vets actually do this somewhat regularly so it is not unheard of.   We went ahead with her spay.  The day we dropped her off, the scale said she weighed 75#.  A big difference from the 86# Rich had told me about. Two different scales.   

Wednesday we had her umbilical hernia fixed as well as her spay.   
She's home now with the "Cone of Shame" and doing pretty good.    She just finished her rimadyl & is still on antibiotics. 

She doesn't hate the cone like her previous siblings have, but she'll be very happy when it's off.  We've limited her "play" as well.  We don't let her into the basement & we have her on sedatives when she gets a little too much energy.    We don't want issues like when Volos had his last tumor removal surgery.

However we do have a new "concern".  In a little discussion on her breeders FB page a picture of one of her sisters was posted with her weight (90#). 

The Breeder reached out to me because she was a bit concerned about Ziva's reported weight. Her brother, Entei (fka teal) is almost 100#.  I don't know about her other sister's exact weight, but since the Breeder has her--i'm assuming it's along the lines of the others.

Because Z was born with a heart murmur that has disappeared over time, she wants us to look into getting an echo for her. While nothing has been said about it in any of her last visits, we think it may be a good idea.   

So I reached out to the vet to ask them their thoughts.  SO we'll probably be scheduling that test in the future.. Looked up the cost, luckily it doesn't appear to be too expensive.   Regardless, we'd have done it even if it was. 

She's a good girl though.  We're a few weeks away from the big "1" .   Can't believe my baby has gotten so big.  She's been through so many changes, but she's coming out on the other end as a pretty good girl.   
We still struggle with the whole "no jumping" thing, but most of the other major issues have diminished or rarely show themselves..

Lada loves her. Volos loves her. Even Peryn is showing more tolerance of her.   She's going to be crazy when she is all healed in a week and a half. 

That's the update on Ms Ziva for now.

The others are doing fine. 

Lying on Momma

Chilling

Wanted to be by Momma. Love my boy

What?! Two posts in one week?

 Your eyes aren't deceiving you. We've posted twice this week.  The Daddyman is otherwise occupied, leaving time for Momma to play around. That doesn't happen often--so enjoy it. 

Regular visitors may notice a slight change in layout & design.  Having had time, found the settings to make some long wanted modifications.    Once upon a time all I did was update and work on webpages and graphics.   That young lil lady eventually got a job, moved back to her home town and got lots and lots of dogs...  Bye bye free time. 

So yes, I made some updates to the layout and colors.   Hope it makes reading easier.

Secondly, I'm writing to tell you about Volos.    

Truthfully, I forget what I do write about. Throughout the week I often compose blog subjects in my head.  What actually gets posted is often a far cry from what I originally thought about. That being said-- Volos had a biopsy done on one of his growths. It was another mast cell tumor.   We decided to remove it being that it was the 3rd growth since we adopted him.

After the initial appointment we found another spot and another fast growing "growth" next to his eye. Thanks to Galen & Duchess, we recognized the eye one as a fatty tumor.

He had his removal surgery yesterday.  The other 2 are being sent for pathology to make sure we got them all and to find out if the 2nd one is a MCT.  

Poor dude.  Picked him up and he was still drugged out and in the cone.  Cone FREAKED him out. Every time it made a sound or moved, he freaked and tried to escape...causing it to move and freak him out more.

His freaking out caused one of the wounds to seep.  I made a quick online purchase and went to pick up an inflatable collar.   Five minutes later, Dude is acting normal.

What didn't help during this time of being drugged and in a cone that freaked him out, my smoke alarm went off.   THAT WAS FUN.

He can't go to daycare for 2 weeks until his stitches are removed.  He stayed home and slept.  Part of it is because he's recovering and the other is he missed his siblings.    He came to life when they got home.

It will be a long 2 weeks I can tell you that. 

The dogs were away from day care for 6 full days. Longest week of my life.   Wednesday I took them to the farm where snow was EVERYWHERE.   Lada was disappointed because she couldn't play fetch because the ball kept disappearing in the snow and neither she nor I could find it. 

They did end up playing with the tug.    

Volos LOVED IT. Snow and this dude....  He really came alive and wish I had been more ready with the camera.   Here are some pics & Vids from the visit..including 3 way tug!

   

  

Finally.

Finally!  Athena was spayed yesterday.   Along with the spaying we had her micro-chipped. 

She's not a fan of the cone. She can't seem to get the gist of how to move with it on. She had surgery along with her sister, Duchess. Duchess had a fatty tumor removed.  Duchess has figured out how to move around with the cone on, but she despises it with her whole being.  

The clinic had great things to say about both girls and that makes me happy. I love the clinic they go to. The techs, the vets, everything about this place is wonderful.  

So, the great news is: Athena is doing very well and is finally spayed. No more puppies for her.  She's micro-chipped, so she should never be truly lost again!

FINALLY comfortable!

 


I HATE THIS!!!



Athena's Update

Hi. Today marks the 2 month mark that she's been with us. 
 
My only complaints:  she still urinates in the house and she barks...a lot.   Other than that she is absolutely wonderful still.   
 
Her surgery is scheduled for Thursday. Both she and her sister, Duchess, are going in. Duchess needs to have a small benign tumor removed.  So yay to that.
 
As far as the physical issues she had when we adopted her:
Both ears were infected. She had a yeast infection on her back & had a strip of hair gone. It was all scabbed over and white. 



First 5 mins we had her. 4/3



Underneath her she was all black. Her underside & her 'elbows'. She had loose skin where it appeared she was underfed.   Her teets were large & distended, possibly over bred.
 
Some pictures (found in an earlier post) for a reminder:

At home getting comfortable

First Hour

See the 'black' underneath her and on her elbows

A back view of the missing hair

 

Close up of her elbow

  



 

Another view of her elbows & her hanging skin underneath
 
 

 
 
 

Her 'hanging" skin & teets

 


Her Back



 So, here she is today. A healthy weight, the scabs gone, the black is slowly fading but it's still there.  Plus she's just happy.

 

Yum! I stole sissy's bone.

 

Filled out.  Nice size girl.

 






Another view of her.

 












 

Her Back today

Her elbow

 

Underneath

 

With Mommy!