On the morning of Sunday, July 2nd around 9am, Tucker began shaking uncontrollably. We initially chalked it up to anxiety as this week is an already stressful one for Tuck with 4th of July and tons of fireworks. A lick mat/activity mat with his favorite foods (peanut butter, greek yogurt, etc.) is usually our go to and Tucker’s favorite way of calming down and channeling his anxiety. Unfortunately, that morning, he wouldn’t even look at his mat. We immediately tried to take him for a walk since that is another one of his favorite activities, and again, he showed no interest. These were two of his favorite things to do so we knew immediately something was wrong.We arrived at the emergency vets office at 10am and unfortunately waited 4 hours before they decided to give Tucker an X-ray of his back as they originally thought it was a spinal issue. Once they concluded there were no issues with his back, they immediately did an ultrasound. The ultrasound showed a lot of fluid in his abdomen and between his organs. They were unable to tell where the fluid was coming from or what it was. They sedated him so they could do a full blood work up and get a sample of the fluid in his abdomen. Around 4pm they determined the fluid was blood and based on what they could see was most likely a ruptured Hemangiosarcoma, a malignant tumor often on the spleen, liver, and heart. They believed it was attached to the spleen and therefore, would have to remove that organ. They kept telling us this would be an “exploratory surgery” as they couldn’t tell exactly what organ(s) the bleeding was coming from. At this point, they had told us that if we move forward with the surgery, Tucker will have a good quality of life for 9-12 months post op. We were absolutely devastated and heartbroken but 1 good year of life is better than none so we decided to move forward with the surgery. At 5:30pm, my husband and I left as a surgeon was able to come in that night to perform the surgery. At 7:30pm, they began prepping Tucker for surgery and called us to go over the 1,000 risks associated with this type of surgery. After a very long 4 hours, at 11:30pm, they called to tell us Tucker did great during the surgery and was stable BUT the source of the bleeding was not exactly what they expected. The bleeding was coming from a Hematoma on his small intestine which, according to the three different surgeons we spoke to over the last 24 hours, they’ve never heard of. The surgeon was luckily able to remove the blood clot and stop all the bleeding without having to remove any organs. We will know if the hematoma was cancerous in 7-10 days. At 5:30pm on July 3rd, we were finally able to take Tucker home. He is home and resting!! We will continue to monitor him closely over the next few weeks and will be in and out of doctors visits for a month or so. Unfortunately, the cost of this surgery was highly unexpected and came just 2 months after another surgery Tucker needed to have regarding a cancerous mass on his eye. These two surgeries combined have cost us a little over $15,000 in 2 months.Tucker is a vital part of our family an any contribution helps! Thank you.
Artículos relacionados
