A student called in a tip about a dog with a large tumor wandering on street, so we quickly went to take a look
It's an elderly female and the tumor really is big, impeding her ability to walk
We call her Gertrude, or Trudy for short
Trudy resisted arrest but calmed down once we gave her some food. She must have been starving for a long time
She looks very tired and sad, the tumor might take all her strength
Trudy was wearing a collar made of rope with sections of a garden hose attached to prevent chafing
Whoever cared for her seems to be someone loving but of little means
Trudy got a walkie before her trip to a clinic
A clinic examined her today and found that her giant tumor extends up and down her mammary glands
They also found another tumor in her right axilla and Gertrude has been scheduled for surgery tomorrow
There's more bad news. her blood work is much worse than expected
This means that the surgery comes with considerable risk
But not doing anything is an even bigger risk. Trudy needs this operation to have any chance of survival
Having just had major surgery, Trudy is too weak to eat, so we syringe-fed her a can of slurry. thankfully, she cooperated
Unfortunately the surgeons ascertained that the tumors have already spread to other parts of her body
She doesn't have long to live
Trudy has 41 stitches
We asked for a full mastectomy and Trudy broke all records for the number of stitches received
Trudy stopped eating, so we got a sample of her blood and had it tested
We expected a resurgent infection but there was none. instead the result showed that her red blood cell count is almost zero
Trudy has thin veins deep under her skin and the blood sample we managed to extract was very small
For the meantime we put her on steroids and syringe-fed her slurry even though she wasn't happy about it
Trudy always does a great job taking her medicine. her stitches came out several days ago. the incision healed nicely
There were times we wondered if it was the right decision to make a terminal dog undergo extensive surgery
It absolutely was. Trudy may have tumors all over but she doesn't show it. she is happy, active, eating a lot, and loving life