Shep News

Wednesday night, Scott asked me if I had time to take Shep to the vet on Thursday.  I told him I would make time and then wanted to know what was wrong. Scott proceeds to tell me that Shep has a lump on his neck that is bothering him and he has been itching it.  I made sure that he showed me where it was so I knew what to show the vet.  It was a big red bump.  I was pretty sure it was a spider/bug bite.

Thursday morning, our vet got us in at 11am.  Shep was weighed, up three pounds to 79.6!  Aye, aye, aye...

Doctor came in, looked at the bump, squeezed it a little and some pus came out so she was pretty much guessing it was a bite like I was.  She took Shep into the back where she could lance and drain it.  When she came back in the room, she says that there wasn't as much pus as she thought there was going to be and she was going to look at it under the microscope.  When she came back in, she had a look of worry and began her sentence with, "Now, I am not a pathologist but..." {you know that is ALWAYS a good sign when pathology is mentioned- not}.

"It's a tumor".

"Um, WHAT!?!?!  {with look of shock}"

"Yeah, and this one worries me.  It's different than his other tumor in his chest that we are watching".

So, um- yeah.  For the second time in the month of February, I sat alone in a doctor's office and was told one of my babies had more cancer.  {Ethan was diagnosed with leukemia February 13, 2004}  This one is worrisome, too.  It is a mast cell tumor and because of the location and rapid increasing size, it needs to be removed in order to ensure that it doesn't metastasize.  The vet was ok just watching the other tumor Shep has because it is a soft-tissue sarcoma with less risk of spreading quickly, whereas this one is already proving to be on the rapid track.

Shep will be going in for surgery first thing Monday morning to remove the tumor.  He should be able to come home that afternoon, but will have one heck of an incision.  So far, he has been taking his meds well, so the irritation and infection around the tumor is definitely better.  Poor puppy has to take two antibiotics and three Benadryl's twice a day, and a pain pill once a day.

Praying that everything will go smoothly on Monday!  Shep still has so much life in him- we have to give him this chance, we just have to.