My Dog Looks Like a Flower

Surgery day

Mass chaos continues around here. We got the great day care switch sorted and Quinn and Declan seem to have transitioned fairly well. They definitely miss their friends from A's, but are enjoying the new friends at the new A's (yep, same first initial!). Dec's best friend from original A's is also going to new A's, and those sweet boys have helped each other feel better about their new world.

So, with a week under their belts at new A's, we thought we'd pile it on. I went out of town for work for a week and Yog went under the knife. Mike had found a small lump in Yog's abdomen quite a while ago. It was unchanged for quite a while, so we just kept tabs on it. Late this fall, we noticed it had started to grow. It grew aggressively from that point on. We were terrified of what the doctor would tell us and so we put off the vet appointment until after the holidays.

Ridiculous

Answered prayers - it was a fatty tumor and nothing more awful. However, it was definitely growing and would likely begin to cause problems for him (we started to see a few ... it was pressing on his bladder and he would have accidents during the day while we were at work on occasion). So we had it removed - along with four teeth that were giving him problems.

The tumor was very large, so it's a good thing we didn't wait much longer. He has a sizable incision on his side that is healing up nicely. Mike got to have a little excitement the day after the surgery when the incision opened back up. Luckily, a quick staple at the vet's took care of that. We are so very grateful that Grandpa Nash was willing to come down for a few days, watch Yog while Mike was at work, and generally add a couple extra hands to the mix while I was traveling. Thank you, Grandpa!

Yogi looked ridiculous in his cone (and like a flower). It was also too big for him, so we didn't make him wear it as much as the vet would have liked. Instead, Mike designed a fashioned white t-shirt/ponytail combo to help cover the incision area. It was slightly less ridiculous looking than the cone. He's been doing really well and has bounced back quickly. Probably too quickly - as we need to slow him down on occasion.

Bugs and I brought him in to get his stitches out on Friday. We are doing some heat packing to try to get rid of a bit of fluid build up by his incision, but other than that, he is back to normal activity. All that's left is few more weeks of softened dog food for his mouth to heal - and a fair amount of fur to grow back.