Surgery #2

I was doing much better for 2 months until my mommy found 2 more bumps on my body on Christmas Day. She took me to the vet and he said one bump was ok but another one on my left paw had to be taken out. So, I got it taken out on Wednesday.

After they were done, they wrapped up my paw and I look like a pirate with a peg leg.  Arrgghhh Matey!

On Wednesday I was really tired and woozy. On Thursday, I was back to normal and I didn't know why mommy wouldn't let me run around and go for a walk.

Today (Friday), I had some diarrhea. I had an accident early this morning, and my tummy is rumbling. My mommy gave me some yogurt, cottage cheese, boiled chicken breast and Slippery Elm. I hope I don't have diarrhea anymore because I don't get to eat as much and that's my favorite thing in the world.



I've been really good and I don't bother with my bandage so I haven't had to wear my cone. I hate that thing so I'm trying to stay good to be cone free.

A Lost Friend

My mommy went shopping this morning and she came back 5 minutes later with a new dog! She said that the dog was running across the street near the park and it didn't have a collar on. I wonder why it didn't have a collar because I love my blue collar since it makes jingling noises when I walk!

The dog was a girl and it growled at me when it came into MY house! I sniffed at it, but I got kind of jealous because my mommy was holding the new dog and not me :( The dog kept growling at me and it didn't want to play with me. My mommy put the dog into the gated area and it started drinking MY water! My mommy couldn't locate the owner and she said that she went down the block near the school knocking on each door and showing the picture of the lost dog. She had to finally call Animal Control because it had no tags and we were going to    grandma's house tonight to spend the night.

The nice man who looked like a police man came and took the lost dog away. I hope that it has a microchip so they can call the owner. I would hate to be lost like her. I nicknamed her Growling Meanie because it kept growling at me and taking my stuff. It would growl at me every time I walked by her and she was sleeping on MY soft rug! I'm glad to be my mommy's only baby again.

After Surgery Day 22

On Thursday, my grammy took me for a walk at night and while walking, I saw something on the ground so I ate it while nobody was looking. When I got home, my tummy hurt so I threw up. Out came the thing that I had eaten and my mommy called it a huge peach pit. I ate my dinner, but I didn't feel well so I threw up again. I then continued to throw up all night and my mommy used up 2 rolls of paper towels to clean up all of my throw ups. My mommy thought I was going to die and I felt like it too.

By 1 am, my mommy said that if I thew up one more time, she was going to take me to the ER. I didn't want to go there and I was really tired, so I tried to not throw up anymore. I fell asleep but I woke up every hour and made some funny noises.

I woke up at 7 am and miraculously my tummy didn't hurt anymore. I was really hungry so when my mommy woke up, I happily greeted her and told her that I was hungry. She didn't feed me breakfast because we had to go see my vet again, so I was sad. I've been there at least once a week for the past month now. When I got there, I howled from the parking lot to let them know that I had arrived. The vet gave me some shots because I was dehydrated, but she said that I could eat again, so I was very happy.

I've learned my lesson and I promise not to each peach pits again.

After Surgery Day 11

My mommy was giving me a belly rub when she realized that I had no hair on my belly! I forgot to tell her that the vet shaved my belly yesterday when they did ultrasound. She said that I look funny without hair because I'm so hairy everywhere else.

I'm feeling much stronger and my scar is almost totally healed. It started to itch a lot, so I've been using the side of my crate to rub against it because I can't lick it due to my lampshade. The darn lampshade!! My mommy is putting some cream on it so it doesn't itch as much, but I'd rather lick it or bite it to make it feel better.

After Surgery Day 10

Today was the day that I went in to get my staples removed. They also did ultrasound on my tummy to make sure that I did not have any other tumors inside of me. Good news! They looked at my inside organs and saw that everything was tumor free! Whoohoo! I am a cancer survivor, just like my daddy! We both have battle scars too. He has his on his torso, and I have mine on my leg.

My mommy is going to change my diet too so that I'm not eating the bad commercial dog foods anymore. Did you know that most dog foods are grain based because it's cheap, but that's what tumors eat and thrive on? So, if you are feeding your dog commercial dog foods, please check the first 3 ingredients to make sure that they are NOT grain based (wheat, corn, flour, etc). You can also check here to see a rating of your dog food. http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/brand/

As you can see, I still have my dreaded lampshade on. The doctor said that I still needed to keep 5 more staples in for 4 more days, so I have to continue to wear this thing on my head. Can I say how much I hate this thing?! But, thanks to my stickers, at least I'm styling!

After Surgery Day 7

I can't believe that it's been a whole week since I've had my surgery. It's also only been 2 weeks since my mom first discovered my little cyst. Life sure can change in just a few days.

My vet called and said that the biopsy came back with the result being Stage 2 with clean margins. That means that my vet did a good job of taking out the mast tumor and the margins were clean with no bad cells being detected. Hopefully, the tumor is all gone and it won't hurt me anymore. Maybe that's why I started vomiting early in the mornings that week. My mom thought that I was just hungry and that was causing me to barf bile in the mornings. It could be that the tumor was causing my stomach to produce more acids.

The staples are still there and it itches like crazy now. I've been trying to get at it, but my lampshade keeps blocking me. I've learned to use my crate to stretch and use leverage to try to reach my scar, but It's still a little bit too far away. Darn you, lampshade!

One good thing that my lampshade can do is hold my monkey for me. Look mom, no hands!

After Surgery Day 2

So it's been 2 days since my mast tumor surgery, and I'm feeling much better. This morning, I woke up and I had more energy. I was finally able to poop this morning, which is good because I guess the anesthesia made me constipated for 2 days. But, I pooped again in the afternoon and it was diarrhea. My dad had to clean me up. Sorry, dad. I then pooped this evening, so I'm a pooping machine!

My mom says that my scar looks clean, so that's good. I've also been taking Pepcid AC at night and I haven't been vomiting in the morning ever since. I still hate my lampshade and it's hard for me to move around without bumping into things. My mom put some stickers on my lampshade so at least I've accessorized! 10 more days until I get my stitches out. I can't wait!

Cyst = Mast Tumor

The vet said that the tests came back saying my cyst is a mast tumor, so he suggested getting it surgically removed. My surgery was today and they took out my cyst. They made me go to sleep during the surgery.

After I woke up, I had this lampshade on my head that I hate. It makes me look like a conehead and I bump into things. My scar looks ugly and they even shaved some hair off of me. I have to have the lampshade on my head for 2 weeks. Sigh.

A Cyst

Yesterday, I was licking my left outside thigh area and my mommy came over to see why I was licking so much. When she looked, she found a big bump, like a big pimple thingie on my skin. It's pretty big and she called it a cyst. She took me to the vet where they stuck a needle into it to make sure that it's not dangerous. It hurt when they put the needle in there and it made it bleed. The vet gave me lots of treats and I showed her my bunny trick and she was very impressed. I hope my bump is not too bad :(

Carnival Splendor

Lawry's Birthday

My brother had a birthday and they went to Lawry's Prime Rib restaurant last week. They brought me home a rib bone because they ordered the Lawry's Cut. I got to eat it for 10 minutes before my mommy took it away from me. Last year, I swallowed the entire bone and I had to visit my vet because the bone was stuck in my tummy. It just wouldn't come out no matter how hard I tried to poop. Sorry, that was too much information.

Anyways, it was the happiest 10 minutes of my life.

Drooool

This is my bowl where I get fed twice a day. Eating is my favorite thing to do and I am very good at it. I can eat a whole bowl of food within 30 seconds. Sometimes, if the food comes from a can, then I can eat it within 5 seconds.



Thinking about food makes me drool. Watching somebody eat will also make me drool. I have been known to produce a pool of drool on the ground while watching my family eat their dinner. I don't understand why my family gets to eat 3+ (TID) times a day while I only get to eat twice a day (BID).


Isn't this beautiful? I should get an Oscar for this award winning drool.

The Light

I have a new job. Whenever we go on a walk after the sun goes down, it is my job to light the way. My mom got me a small LCD flashlight that goes onto my collar and I have to shine the light on the ground to show us where we are walking. There's no streetlights where we live, so this is a really important job that I have to do. It also shows the drivers where we are so that they don't hit us. People and other dogs see me doing my job and they get pretty jealous of my cool flashlight. Look mom, no hands!

Broken Toe Suggestions

I've had a few people ask me about what to do for broken toes so I will share my story.

I broke my toe at 11 pm by dropping a notebook battery/adapter on my foot. When it first happened, it hurt, but I was able to walk on it. 5 minutes later, I was suddenly NOT able to walk on it at all and I iced for about 1 hour. The 4th toe was swollen and purple. I fell asleep praying that it would be better by the next morning.

Unfortunately, the next morning, I was not able to put any weight on it at all. Luckily, I had a pair of old crutches and I went to the ER that afternoon. After doing some X-Rays, they told me that I had broken the lower part of the 4th toe horizontally. I was told to rest, ice, and elevate the foot. They showed me how to buddy tape the broken toe to the healthy toe next to it. I did exactly that for the next 2 weeks. I iced it regularly, I rested it as much as possible, and I used the crutches to help me move around. For 2 weeks, I was not able to put any pressure on my foot at all.


After doing some searching on google, I found a herb called comfrey that supposedly helps with broken bones. Wholefoods had it in stock, so I got Gaia Herbs Comfrey Compound Salve. I put the salve liberally on the toe and within a few minutes, I felt like my toe was being massaged and slightly constricted. It was a weird feeling, but I felt that the salve was doing something to heal my toe. I put the salve all around the toe, placed a thin sheet of gauze around the toe, and then buddy taped it (picture in the June blog; the green coloring is the salve). After doing this for 3-4 days, I was able to put some weight on my foot. I'm not sure if the Comfrey was the cure, or if the fact that I rested the foot for 2 weeks was the cure, but I was slowly able to put some weight on the foot on the 3rd week.

I was also given a little boot called Darco Medical Shoe Wedge that had a big heel which relieved the pressure off of the toes. Wearing this shoe allowed me to walk for longer periods and I was able to start going out and I was able to go grocery shopping, go to the movies, and I even went camping. I never walked more than 1/2 mile total, but at least it allowed me to start walking. One major negative about this shoe was that it gave me a backache because one side of your body is higher due to the wedge. If it's not one thing, it's another :(

I'm on the 4th week, and I started walking without the Darco shoe, but it's still sore and the foot starts tingling if I walk too much. I only walk around the house, but I make sure that I'm wearing slippers to help the foot stay flat.

Luckily, I work from home during the summer, so I was able to really stay off my feet for the first few weeks which I think helped with the recovery. I go into the doctor again next week, so we'll see what happens. I hope my little story has helped somebody with a broken toe because this has been an ordeal for me too. Who knew that a little toe can wreck havoc on your entire body!

I'm Sorry

One night, my mommy was moving her laptop to another room when I heard the front door open. I'm supposed to go and greet (or bark at) whoever comes into the house so I ran past her. When I did, I accidentally pulled on the laptop cord and caused the big battery/adapter thingie to fall on her foot. She wasn't wearing any shoes or socks, and so her 4th toe got broken. She said some words I've never heard of and hopped on only one leg.

The next day, she came home from this place called the "ER" and had some crutches. Since I'm scared of all things that look like a stick, I have to be upstairs when she comes downstairs and vice versa. And, she hasn't been able to take me for any walks since that awful night. I guess that's my punishment for causing her to walk on two sticks. I'm sorry, Mommy. I hope your toe gets better soon :(

Hide and Seek

Can you find me in the picture? I am inside the 40 lb bag of Science Diet dog food. It's the Lamb and Rice one and I am licking the bottom of the bag. I did a great job of eating the entire bag so I got to lick it clean before it went into the garbage can. My favorite thing to do in the world is to eat so I am very very happy right now. I can live in this bag forever. Lick,lick, lick.