what a day!

We had taken Oskar in to our local animal hospital as a referral for a routine CT scan we had scheduled to investigate a some lameness he has experienced on his front right elbow and a suspected partial CCL tear in his hind left leg. We were going to try and extend this to a full body scan to identify or rather rule out one of the scenarios that the eye tumour is a particularly aggressive form of cancer.

As ever Oskar was super keen to get into the car and go for a ride. He was jumping for joy and I remember thinking it would be so difficult in a few weeks time when we knew what the result of journey would entail. He was such a good boy at reception, sitting there with anticipation and keeping clear of other animals.

decisions

The orthopaedic consultation went without a glitch and it was confirmed that a scan would be appropriate to understand the situation better and allow us to form a plan, but that his muscle distribution was good. Great! We really needed some good news.

Ida, the ophthalmologist, joined us for a review of the eye situation. After a review it became clear that the tumour had grown since the last consultation a few weeks ago, and that is was now encroaching on the pupil. The pressure on the affected eye was significantly different indicating possible inflammation. Things were not looking good, especially as we still didn’t have an answers on the type of tumour this was.

She patiently went through the options again and answered the questions we had. If we did nothing then likely we would be back in about 6 to 12 months for removal once it started to be painful for him. More worrying was the possibility that the tumour could spread to other organs. She put the situation quite starkly.

Lose the eye, save the dog

Ultimately the organ is still of use to him now, but very soon it won’t be, and in fact it could represent a danger. It makes sense to look at this as you would a rotten tooth or any other organ that has outlived its usefulness, and that with the eye you’re simply losing the redundancy as the reason we have 2 of most organs is to ensure we can survive the loss of one.

We could:

• go away and think about it
• schedule the appointment as originally planned for later in the month
• schedule him in after his CT scan, today!

Dawn and I were not expecting the last option, we had to collect our thoughts. It didn’t take us long to come to the realisation that there was only one safe option for Oskar, especially as any alternative would only be buying us a little time in terms of weeks or months, and the potential of significant pain and risk to Oskar. Any delay should really serve a purpose, that we would have a realistic chance of different outcomes.

We called the physicians back in and asked if we could sign the paperwork so they could proceed with the last option. It then all happened so quickly.

I had a tear in my eye as Dawn took the final pre-op photograph. My little puppy would never be the same again.

We all walked out of the consultation room and he happily followed the orthopaedic vet through a door on the left of the corridor as we carried on.

the other side

The rest of the afternoon was an anxious wait for phone calls from the animal hospital for news: the CT scans weren’t due until 3.30pm.

They called after 4.30pm to advise it went generally ok, but that they noticed a larger than normal lymph nodes near the impacted eye and wanted authorisation to take a sample for analysis, which we duly gave. Next would be the much dreaded operation.

We got the phone call from the surgeon at 6.45pm telling us it had been successful and that we could bring him home in an hour: there were no complications! We had to prepare ourselves for the sight of him. Everyone told us that nothing quite prepares you for the reality.

We were seen to quite quickly, the surgeon who had been there since 6am was still there finishing up for the day! What commitment. She explained in detail how it went and that she stitched up the incision with 5 layers. The post-op care was quite involved, and they made sure it was communicated to us before Oskar was brought in.

He was surprisingly active, especially considering the drugs that were coursing through his veins, and over the moon to see us. He promptly made his way over to us and got constant reassurances. Not sure why, but I had expected his eye to have been covered with a patch, instead it was open to the elements, so you could readily see the impact of the operation.

The surgeon had done an amazingly neat job, with all the stitching having been done inside, with nothing being visible.

Keeping in mind the area had to have been shaved for the operation, it actually doesn’t look too bad. Especially as he still has the ability to move his eyebrows, which form such a mainstay of his expressions.

The new Oskar

Its just a matter of getting through the next few weeks to ensure there are no post-operative complications.

We can work with this.