Shep's Surgery

Scott and I took Shep in this morning at 8am for his scheduled surgery to remove the mast cell tumor from his neck.  It was hard to leave him, but we knew that he was in good hands.  I started to cry on the way to school and Ethan kind of grunted at me like he was telling me it would be ok.  

I was told that a heartworm test would have to be done pre-op, so we expected that.  What we didn't expect was for him to actually have heartworm.  :(  I then had to wait for the doctor to decide what to do.  This required a chest x-ray to make sure that his heart wasn't too enlarged to risk surgery.  The radiologist also said that there was not any sign of metastasized cancer...YAY!!!  I got the call around 11:45 that everything looked ok and that they were starting surgery.

Close to two hours later, I got the call that Shep was out of surgery and doing well.  I didn't expect it to take that long to hear from them, but they said that he did well and they were considering keeping him overnight.  

On the way home, I stopped in to the vet's to check on Shep.  He was just waking up and looking good!  The doctor came out and said that she had a confession.  ???  She says that she decided to remove the tumor from his belly too!  ...FOR FREE!!!  So, now I can semi-officially say that Shep is CANCER FREE!!!  {pending pathology reports}  

Thanks to everyone who said a wonderful puppy prayer for Shep today!  We appreciate it!  I was able to bring Shep home and he ate some.  He is having a hard time figuring out how he can lay down without laying on his belly.  :(  I am anxiously waiting for Scott to get home so he can help with Shep since Shep has always listened to Scott better anyway- that's what happens when they went to work together every day for close to 10 years! 

Neck incision

Underbelly incision

Poor puppy just wants to lay down but can't quite figure it out with a big slice on his belly.  :*(

The incisions are even bigger than I anticipated, but he is cancer-free, so it's ALL GOOD!!!  :)