Luna: the lump is back!
So on Friday night I noticed another lump on Luna, in pretty much exactly the same spot she had the cancerous lump last year. So I made an appointment with the vet.
Attempt #1: unsuccessful. The vet was someone she didn't know who was male, so she wouldn't let him examine her, even though I'd given her the chill pills. They were very nice and didn't charge me for the visit, and let me reschedule for today with a (female) vet she knows and likes.
Attempt #2: still ongoing. Our appointment was at 6pm. She's still at the vet's right now (9pm), because they sedated her to get a sample of the tumour. She had a bit of an adverse reaction to the anesthetic, however (heart arrhythmia, very fast heart rate), so they kept her a little longer and gave her fluids to flush out any lingering drugs in her system. I suspect this may have been caused by the drugs I had to give her yesterday and today building up in her system. Anyway, I'm going to pick her up in about half an hour and we're going back tomorrow afternoon to check her vitals and make sure she's bounced back nicely. The vet offered me the option of transferring her to one of the 24 hour emerg vets in the area for overnight monitoring, but I'm comfortable having her at home overnight. I know what to look for and I think Luna's still pretty young and healthy. I'm sure she'll be fine, but I'll keep her close.
If the results of this round of testing is either positive for cancer or inconclusive, however, they're not going to bother with a biopsy. The tumour is small enough that taking a piece of it might fracture it and make it more difficult to be sure it gets removed in surgery, so she'll likely go straight to the veterinary oncologist and likely straight to surgery.
So that was my fun-filled weekend. Stress and expense!
Attempt #1: unsuccessful. The vet was someone she didn't know who was male, so she wouldn't let him examine her, even though I'd given her the chill pills. They were very nice and didn't charge me for the visit, and let me reschedule for today with a (female) vet she knows and likes.
Attempt #2: still ongoing. Our appointment was at 6pm. She's still at the vet's right now (9pm), because they sedated her to get a sample of the tumour. She had a bit of an adverse reaction to the anesthetic, however (heart arrhythmia, very fast heart rate), so they kept her a little longer and gave her fluids to flush out any lingering drugs in her system. I suspect this may have been caused by the drugs I had to give her yesterday and today building up in her system. Anyway, I'm going to pick her up in about half an hour and we're going back tomorrow afternoon to check her vitals and make sure she's bounced back nicely. The vet offered me the option of transferring her to one of the 24 hour emerg vets in the area for overnight monitoring, but I'm comfortable having her at home overnight. I know what to look for and I think Luna's still pretty young and healthy. I'm sure she'll be fine, but I'll keep her close.
If the results of this round of testing is either positive for cancer or inconclusive, however, they're not going to bother with a biopsy. The tumour is small enough that taking a piece of it might fracture it and make it more difficult to be sure it gets removed in surgery, so she'll likely go straight to the veterinary oncologist and likely straight to surgery.
So that was my fun-filled weekend. Stress and expense!