The Results Are In

Quackers lump did in fact come back as a lipoma or fatty type lump. However it was not your run of the mill lipoma which was my concern. Those deep attachments on the underside of the mass were attached to muscle . It is what is termed an infiltrative lipoma which is a benign neoplasm (cancer). I know benign and neoplasm really should not go in the same sentence. What this really means is the fatty tissue invades the surrounding tissues, in this case the muscle fibers. It can cause issues with the function of muscle or other tissues it invades. It is very hard the remove all of the cells since they are interlaced in the surrounding tissues, so often times all the abnormal cells can not be removed, and the mass has a good chance of regrowing. However this type of mass generally does not spread widely through out the body like other cancers. It just effects surrounding tissues. This was the concern for our dog since her mass was located so closely to her spinal column. If the entire tumor can not be removed radiation is a common therapy to shrink the abnormal cells and prevent tumor regrowth. Luckily all the tumor cells appear to have been removed on our girl so we require no further treatment, except a close eye for future masses. Quackers did however have a reaction to the suture that was placed in the subcutaneous layer under her skin. It is swollen and slightly hot. It should resolve on its own with no treatment as the suture breaks down and dissolves. So even though it was not quite the tumor type we had hoped for, being just a lipoma, we still have a very good prognosis.

Quackers Lumpectomy Home Care

Here is the incision after the fact.

It looks really good.
Here is my girl sitting with some frozen peas on her surgery site last night. This helps reduce swelling and it feels good to them, She was also having a little oozing so the cold will help constrict down the blood vessels and stop the bleeding. This is totally normal for the first few hours after surgery. She is still dopey from her anesthesia so she has spent most of her night in her crate asleep. She has good pain medicine on board to keep her comfortable. For the next 7 to 10 days she will be on leash walks only and no jumping rough play or swimming or bathing. So that means no cuddle time on the bed :( Stair climbing is to be kept to a minimum so she will spend the first several days down stairs, but later on we may let her go up slowly on a leash. We don't want anything to compromise the suture line.

Quackers Lumpectomy Surgery

IV is in induction drugs have been given and she has her endotracheal tube placed, that will deliver her oxygen and gas anesthetic. You can't see it but she is clipped and scrubbed and ready to go.

Blood pressure monitor

Here is the lump located just to the left of her spine.

The initial cut.

Here it is the fatty mass or lipoma, It is nice and smooth on this side which is good. However the underside was firmly attached so we will send it to the pathologist just to be certain we are not missing something.

The hole left after the removal is larger than one might think. Sometimes if these holes are very large they will fill with a serous, or blood tinged fluid. Luckily Quackers hole was not very large and did not require the placement of rubber drains.

Being stitched back up

The lump in a formalin jar ready to be sent off to the pathologist. We will have results toward the middle to end of next week.

Recovery

Note her IV line and bag this help keep her hydrated and helps us stabilize her blood pressure. It also gives us immediate access to a vein if an emergency situation were to arise. She has a warming disc and blankets to help keep her warm, cause often times surgery patients get hypothermic, which slows their anesthetic recovery time.











Normal dogs that are sitting sternal already have their tubes removed, but Quackers had not been fasted so there was a good chance she might vomit after her surgery. If she were not swallowing well she could aspirate the vomit causing serious complications. Since she wasn't working her tongue extremely well yet and since she was being a good girl and not chewing at the tube we could leave it in for a long period of time ensuring her safety.

Here she is with her tube removed (extubated) and sitting in her recovery cage. You can see her IV line still attached.

Here she is with her world still spinning.

Ducks Unlimited Banquet

Our Annual Ducks Unlimited Banquet was tonight. It is a fundraiser we have attended for the past 12 years. We usually spend quite a bit of money there, and sometimes if we have any we donate puppies. This year the economy hit hard. There were fewer people and fewer items, and folks just didn't bid as high. We usually buy the painting of the year by artist Terry Redlin, but we were unsure if there was going to be a banquet this year so we had bought the painting in advance from DU. So our bids were out on that one, it did still bring good money which made us feel better about buying it early. So this year there wasn't anything that really caught my eye and said I have to have that bid on it. So hubby started bidding on a cool camo DU edition acoustic guitar in the silent auction. Another guy kept bidding against us, but in the end we came out on top. So I've posted a pic of hubby with his cool new guitar.

101 Uses For A Labrador-Use #4

Use #4

Alarm Clock

A Little Jealous

A little jealous is what hubby was after I posted my 3 celebrity picks, well here it is all rolled into one perfect package.

Awesome blue eyed, guitar playing fish guy, and he's all mine!

Inspired by Yankee Girl

Inspired By Yankee Girl
She posted her top 3 guilty celebrity crushes and I had to jump on board

I'm sure everyone can guess #1Rick Savage-bass player for Def Leppard

Just plain hot

Sig Hansen-norwegian crab boat capt'n off Deadliest Catch

What can I say I love fish guys.Thomas Gibson-Agent Hotchner-off Criminal Minds

Love those eyes

101 Uses For A Labrador

101 Uses For a Labrador

use #3

Bed warmer

Colony Update

Everybody check out the video of the rabbits in the new colony enclosure over on my other blog www.kirklandrabbitry.blogspot.com

Setting Up The Colony

After reading several blogs and doing a little research of our own the hubby and I have decided we would like to try colony raising with our rabbits. We are hoping it will aid in ease of feeding and watering, since most the rabbits will be in one cage instead of each one needing their own feed and water bottle in individual cages. We are also hoping to be able to feed them more naturally this way. It will be easier to provide large quanities of hay and grass that otherwise would fall through a cages wire. We will also be able to provide large hunks of wood to chew on, their favorite past time, and they will have lots more room to hop around and socialize. After reading alot! We decided to do a modified colony. Our pen will have a floor so the rabbits can not dig burrows. I wish they could so it would be more natural, but digging down 2 plus feet to install wire so they can't escape and trying to get them out of their holes when you want them just seemed like too much work. We are only housing does in the conoly, bucks will remain in cages. We like to keep a good eye on who is having babies and when and how many. So this way the does will be removed for breeding so we know exactly when they are due, then removed again about a week before their due dates. We are excited and hopeful that this idea will work, if it doesn't we will go back to cages, but we like the idea of freedom the colony gives us and our rabbits so we'll see how it goes. We will keep you updated

Hubby near the posts I set for the doorway you can see the wire fastened along the sides of the bunny barn the open end is secured to t posts.

The door.

The wire covered floor.

Hubby after hanging the door, now ready for rabbits.

Turning the first group out. If they do well and stay in we will add more rabbits. We didn't want the whole herd to escape in case they found a hole. We plan on adding straw bedding to cover the floor, but we wanted to give it a trial run first. So far we are 12 hours out and no escapees. We will post more pics when we get the bedding and all the other amenities set up, but for now the rabbits had so much fun hopping around and exploring. It made me smile to watch them run and play with so much room to move in. Now lets just hope they are all still there in the morning.

Our daughter playing in the colony pen with the bunnies another plus, easier play time for us.

Sounds like a Goose Update

Our dear sweet Bumpers stopped coughing thursday night without needing to go to the vet, just lots of good nursing care at home, however last night our Stryker started to cough, so I guess I'll be softening food and running the vaporizer for yet another week. Hopefully no one else catches it.