PopCorn (the dog)

We wanted to wait until we knew more before telling everyone about PopCorn.

Pop’s been slowing down eating her food for a week or two but we thought it was a tooth issue. Then last Monday night (12/1), she hurled up her dinner. Tuesday morning, she wouldn’t eat at all. That is soooo not Pop’s thing. She loves food. We were able to get an appt for her that day with our usual vet.

PopCorn is a Foxhound dog. She has a tick disease (Ehrlichia) and has had a fibrous tumor removed from her foot (which has since grown back). We were thinking the Ehrlichia had raised its head again.

The vet (the wondrous Dr. Knepshield) felt a mass in PopCorn’s belly. X-rays showed a huge mass attached to her spleen. She was also quite anemic. After discussing it with the vet and staff, we decided to do a blood transfusion over night and have mass removed the next morning. One of the staff persons was able to go home and get her dog to use as a donor. The next day, Dr. Bayer did the surgery. PopCorn’s anemia had improved significantly which showed there was not an “active” bleeding happening. However, there was still a lot of blood inside. As the surgery progressed, PopCorn’s blood pressure dropped and Dr. Knepshield was called in to assist to finish it up quickly.

Today we were told of the pathology report.

The mass was indeed cancer but it is a rare type. It is “fibrous-something-nodule” that sometimes can form on the spleen. This type of cancer is very slow growing and the dogs can live for a year or more before the cancer metastasizes. This is great news! The only other dog they’d had in that office with this cancer lived nearly 2 yrs. If it had been the usual type of spleen cancer, we were looking at 3-4 mos tops for PopCorn.

No, we will not be doing chemotherapy. We’ve discussed it several times in the past week. It came down to quality of life. We want PopCorn’s remaining time with us to be comfortable, pleasant, and fun. Next week, she’ll go in for surgery again to remove the tumors from her foot. It returned a while ago but now there is a second one higher up on the leg in what would be our forearm, between those two bones. She’s stopped putting weight on that leg so removing the tumors will relieve her of pain. Dr. Knepshield is curious about the pathology of these tumors since the last one was also a fibrous tumor (although benign).

I’ll keep everyone updated on Pop’s progress.

Comments

  1. Poor, poor dog. I hope she recovers well and quickly from the surgery, and that she isn’t stressed by what is happening to her. Hugs for you two, too.

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