Our Tristan

It's a difficult day here. Gordon took Tristan into the vet for surgery today to remove a growth, an epulis, from his gum. We also asked the vet to look at his belly, which seems to have developed a swelling the past couple of weeks.

The vet called me about an hour ago. An ultrasound showed a grapefruit-sized mass on Tristan's liver, which could rupture at any time. I gave Dr. Peter the go-ahead to do exploratory surgery; we couldn't just leave it and let Tristan hemorrhage to death one day. Since he was already under the anaesthesia for his gum surgery, we decided to find out what's going on.

All that said, this is not good news for a dog who is nearly 11 and already dealing with bad arthritis. The vet said he would call me asap after the surgery, which is going on now. It's hard for me to imagine any particularly good outcome from this. Even if it's benign and removeable, this is a big surgery for a doggy like Tristan. I am not generally in favour of doing a lot of invasive medical procedures on senior dogs, particularly one like Tristan, whose quality of life is already somewhat compromised by his arthritis. On the other hand, neither can we let him bleed out one day. And Dr. Peter is an excellent veterinary surgeon; I have complete confidence in his skills, and he knows us and our animals very well. 

So glad Tristan got to have a nice swim in the pond last week!

Love my dufus.

And he loves Gordon!

He was not pleased this morning when he had to skip breakfast.

Please think good thoughts for him. I just want him to be able to come home, whatever happens. I will let you know.