Rena Update

I thought I would blog a little update to the recent blog on Rena and her bladder problem. In that blog, I made a light-hearted reference to her "getting cancer and dying" if the medicine failed. It was meant to be aeuphamistic way to describe, essentially, euthanasia for a dog that is old and losing important bodily functions that prevent them from living on one's house. Like bladder control. Well, she developed a lump on her leg. About 6 weeks later, one on her shoulder.............

....Well, We took her to visit Uncle Neil. He felt they should be removed. Neil has a funny quirk about people who bring him a dog for surgery (especially friends and family). He insists that the owner DO THE SURGERY! I am not making this up. Anyway, this is what she looked like when we got done. The sutures and the wounds are barely visible due to her dark skin.

The path report was positive for Melanoma (Yes, melanoma, the nasty skin cancer) for the leg and was a benign or non-cancerous lump for the shoulder. But melanoma in the skin for dogs is often (not always) a non-spreading cancer and can be successfully treated by surgery.

Uncle Hans