A Dog and his Boy
The old lab’s stomach was gradually expanding. It was almost unnoticeable at first, but then he began throwing up and went off his food for many days. Suddenly one night he could not get up. His owners brought him to CARE right away, where he was found to be in a state of shock and very anemic. Most startling of all, ultrasound and radiographs revealed a huge mass growing from his spleen, crowding out his other organs. He would need surgery immediately to remove the massive invader and save his life.
A surgery of this proportion for a twelve year old lab is not an easy decision for an owner to make . . . especially since there was no telling if the growth was cancerous, and no time to wait to find out. However, for his family the choice could not be more obvious. They would do whatever it took to save their dog, even if it was for a precious few weeks or months. He was the only one who truly connected with their developmentally disadvantaged son, and even a tumor of this size could not obstruct their bond. The family quickly authorized surgery.
After four hours on the operating table, a blood transfusion, and the intense efforts of two of CARE’s emergency doctors, a fifteen pound mass was excavated from the dog’s abdomen. It took both doctors to heft its bulk out of him, and with that he was literally relieved of a great burden. The sincere grey-faced dog recovered from his ordeal very well: within a day he was back on his feet, taking wobbly – but much lighter – steps. His insides were back where they belonged, and he was voraciously hungry. His stomach had room for food again! Most importantly of all, he was able to go home to his very best friend sooner than expected.
The event proved to be only another adversity they would help each other overcome.
CARE is here to perform life-saving procedures at the moment they are needed. Without the advanced diagnostics and therapies the lab received, his outcome may have been tragically different. We could not be happier to send him home with his boy.
-Emily Murray, CVT
