Bentley Post Op day1/day2

Bentley had a rough 1st night. The little bugger just couldn't get comfortable. Everytime he tried to lay down, he'd feel a pain as he was lowering to the floor and jump back up. He's flexible though, and managed to find comfort in standing. I think that the standing bothered Eric and I more than him though because we knew that he was hurting and couldn't do much for him. There we were lounging on the couch and he was just standing there, staring off into the distance and panting. It was sorrowful.

The next day the vet called to check on him and she up'd his pain meds by 4X . He went from getting one pill every 12 hours to 2 pills every 6 hours. Eric stayed home with him the 1st day after surgery and was able to increase his meds immediately after the vet gave him the ok. He said that within an hour or so, he was feeling much better. Bentely's now able to lay down and rest, which makes us feel a lot better and he's even wagging his tail on occassion.

Instead of the tradition E collar, our vet recommended a t-shirt for him to wear to deter him from messing with his incision site. Because he needed an XL or XXL to be big enough to cover the site, we had to go shopping. Eric came home with a GAP XL T-shirt that he got off the clearance rack at the GAP near our house. So, the Benster is recoving in style! We managed to pull it around his R hind leg and pin it to keep it from riding up. The picture above is him getting used to it (without the pin, 80's style)...staring off into space again. He gets weird like that when he's out of sorts. Instead of trying to escape from it, he just zones out. He didn't really seem to mind it much after a few minutes though. I must admit though, this isn't the 1st time that I've put a t-shirt on Bentley! On occasion, I'd put one of my t-shirts on him and see how long it look Eric to notice.

He's home alone right now, so I'm a little worried that we'll come home to find that the t-shirt failed. Eric will be going home to check on him today at lunch just to make sure that everything is ok.

More to come

Send good doggie vibes to Bentley today

Bentley has surgery scheduled Monday morning so if you have some time, please say a prayer for Bentley (and me) asking for a smooth surgery and speedy recovery...

I found a little marble sized lump in on Bentley's right side while he enjoyed one of our massage/scratch sessions. It was hard but mobile within the skin (not attached to any internal organs). They aspirated it at the vet's office the next day and looked at it under the slide but it came back inconclusive, but suspicious enough that they wanted to remove it. She sent us on our way and told us that if he happens to have a reaction to the needle aspiration, similar to a bee sting (swelling and itchiness), to give him 3 adult Benedryl immediately and call her because it signifies that it is a mast cell tumor. Apparently mast cell tumors release histamine which causes the reaction.

We thought we were in the the clear because he didn't have an immediate reaction, but 30 hours later (at 3 o'clock in the morning) he woke us up shaking his ears and scratching. We turned on the lights to find his adorable little face all swollen and irritated from scratching. Of course we didn't have 3 Benedryl in our house, so Eric went to get them at the Walgreens down the street while I applied a cold wash cloth to his face. I had him jump in bed with me so that I could stop him from scratching and Eric spent the night on the couch.

It took about 2 days for the swelling to go down completely but he has been on Benedryl for 5 days solid and he still enjoys a good belly scratch. He seems to be back to normal now and even managed to go on a couple walk despite the the drowsiness. The tumor actually is smaller than a pea now...apparently they can change sizes pretty quickly which can trick some pet owners into thinking that everything is ok when it's not. I actually snipped off some hair around the lump and marked it with an X so that they know where to find now that it's so small ( the vet whose doing the surgery isn't the same as the vet who checked him over at the office initially).

Since we don't know what the poor little guy has ahead of him, I wanted to take a few photos while he's healthy and happy. We're staying positive but we're also concerned. This little guy is so special to us.

The prognosis all depends on the grade and stage of the tumor. We'll know more after they get a peak inside and we get the pathology report back. We'll keep you updated. Enjoy the plethora of images.