I have few lumps now, they usually happen when I bang into things, and I had some tested a few years back, which were all just fatty cysts, so my Mum wasn't worried when this one popped up around xmas time - it coincides with the corner of the coffee table and I sometimes bash that when I want to jump off the sofa to collect the postman's goodies.
Seeing how sore it was, she knew she had to take me to the vet and they tried to make it heal by covering it so I could not bite it, and giving me yucky tablets, but it would not heal so I had to have an operation to take the whole lump off. Thats when we discovered I have a very nasty cancer.
At first, we were a little confused, our vet wasn't explaining it very well and Mum knew some dogs had this cancer and were fine for years, and some got very ill and didn't live very long at all. She asked the vets to refer me to Dick White Referrals centre in 6 Mile Bottom, Newmarket where we learnt I had the worst kind, a grade 3 mast cell cancer, and I had new tumours coming up at the site of the removed one.
My family were very worried about what to do. I am a fuss-pot and a super star, and a bit of a wuss about some things, like rain, so they thought it might not be so good for me to have treatment, but the vets at hospital said that it was unusual for dogs to suffer side effects for this kind of cancer treatment, and if I did, they could stop. If all went really well, we could achieve remission and I could live for much longer, so they decided to give it a go and I started chemotherapy with steroids.
I like the nurses a lot cos they fuss me and give me lovely treats, so I am happy about my treatment, and they say the tumours have shrunk right back to being barely 'gnat bites' which means I am responding very well. Mum and Dad are thrilled.
Problems I have had are that the steroids make me want to drink more, and pee more, and sometimes this has happened while I've been sleeping at night, which is a bit weird, but no one has been upset with me.
Another scary thing is that the pills make me hungrier too and it was too hard to resist stealing the chicken carcass (I'm barf fed) Mum was bagging up for the freezer, from her hand. I swallowed it whole, then my tummy started blowing up and got very sore. Mum said I was 'bloating' and grabbed my tummy to push the air up again, and after 2 goes I belched and my tummy was better.
The next week - last week - I drank all my water, and then drunk my eggies with my pills in. I have my pills in eggies to stop me being clever and spitting them out when Mum isn't looking. Mum didn't think about all that liquid - eggs are food after all, not a drink - and then my tummy started doing it again and it was so painful I could barely stand up, I felt really sick. Mumsy was really scared but squeezed me, and then rung daddy to come home to take me to the vet, and then squeezed me again, and then tried to ring the vet but they were engaged. She squeezed me again, but it would not stop, so she tried to ring the vet again and got through to tell them I was being brought in as an emergency... phone down, and Mum squeezed me again, and it worked! I still felt a bit icky and she had to stop me from eating grass, but I was fine when daddy came home. Everyone was happy :)
My steroid dose dropped down to one tablet every other day as of today, so hopefully I will not need so much water. The vet at the hospital said if my tummy does it again I should have an operation, but we hope we can avoid that. Tummys are for tickles, not for scalpels!
I would like to give a mention here to my wonderful insurance company vetsmedicover.co.uk for ensuring I can have the very best of care and Mumsy highly recommends this company anyone with a cat or a dog. Our lives are too precious to take a chance on.
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