Brutus and Rufus Surgeries

I havent been around much lately and I am sorry. I miss you all terribly but have been trying to keep up with whats going on via your facebook posts.

You may have noticed that I posted about Brutus and Rufus today (got a couple of comments from some of you - thanks so much, it really means alot to me that I havent been forgotten). Both of them underwent surgery to have ickies removed. OMG $1500.00 later....

Rufus has had a large "skin tag" looking thing on his elbow for quite some time. We have been watching it and it hadnt changed much in the past year or so but Sunday I came home and he had yanked out one of his dew claws and his elbow was all wet and slobbery. I looked at it and it was abraded and oozing and angry so I decided it was time to have it removed and the vet agreed. We scheduled his surgery for today. He had the spot removed and it was into the dermis as well... the vet things it started out as a callous and instead of growing outward grew up, hard to describe. It was sent off for pathology just to be sure, but he doesnt think its anything sinister.

Brutus had his appointment this morning only for a recheck of his eye. About 10 days ago he sprouted a small spot that looked like a blood blister on the granular layer covering the 3rd eyelid. It grew and tripled in size in as many days. The vet thought it was due to a reaction of the epithelial cells to some sort of injury. Treatment was steroidal ointment 3x day. This did not shrink it at all and it continued to grow in size. Today he was scheduled for a recheck and the vet felt confident it was indeed a tumor in the membrane above the eyelid. He was also put under and it was easily removed. He isnt overly concerned with it but it was sent for pathology as well.

Both of them are home and groggy. YEY! Now I just wait on the histology and pray nothing else happens.... my coffers cant take another hit like that!

The vet just called with the histopathology on the boys.

Rufus - his growth turned out to be a papilloma which has been irritated by trauma.

Brutus - his growth is a malignant low grade hemangiosarcoma caused from solar exposure. The pathology report says it may likely come back locally to his nicotating membrane but it it has a low rate of metastasis. His prognosis is favorable and they were able to excise the tumor completely. This is a particularly nasty, aggressive cancer and the prognosis is almost always poor. He however had it in the most ideal location (orignianated in the nicotating membrane and not a metastasis from visceral hemangiosarcoma) possible, we caught it very quickly and the vet it happy with the prognosis from the lab. So, although it is awful, its awesome news.

im glad you got such a good result out of such a bad situation!

they do put us through it - dont they!?

cheri