My Ol' Boy

**WARNING! Contains some mildly graphic discussion and pictures related to dog surgery.  Don't want anyone to throw up on their phone or keyboard.

My first born child is a black lab named Fisher.  (Actually, my first born was a chocolate lab named Gibby but he was stollen from us on Feb 12, 2000 and my heart still aches when I think of that lovable bundle of brown boy...but I'll not go there.  If I'm being truthful, Maggie, our cat was our first born but she was always so hateful that she was just our cat, not our child.  Even though we all cried like babies and were terribly broken when we had to make the gut wrenching decision to put her to sleep...I'll stay away from there too.) He turned 11 years old last month.  He is 120+ lbs of sweet silliness.  He is lumpy and bumpy with many fatty tumors all over his body.  He even has an enormous skin tag on his chest that we've named Hunter, Fisher's partially absorbed twin.  He would never take home the blue ribbon from the dog show unless it was, according to my brother Jim, in the category of personality and congeniality.
One of the tumors on Fisher's belly was as big as a football.  It was on his left side and had grown so that it was really affecting his everyday life.  He couldn't sit without bending his leg at a very unnatural angle and he would make a noise each time he would lie down that sounded like he was being deflated.  No, not that noise, ha! It swung when he walked and he would get very embarrassed when I would pet him and rub it or talk about it.  Now, if you don't have pets that you love as your child then you may think I'm crazy.  But it's true.  He really does get embarrassed, by more than just his big tumors.  And if you watch him it is as obvious as when you or I are embarrassed.
A few weeks ago we talked to our vet (Dr.  Tom Isaac, Jr at Valley West whom I can not say enough good things about) and decided that it would be best to have it and another on his leg removed.  Years ago we had noticed the tumors coming on and he told us then that unless they were causing a problem they would not remove a fatty tumor.  Well, these had started to cause a problem.
He also had one on his neck that had grown so that it was about to pop the skin.  I know, eeeewww. But it gets worse.  It did pop.  We were eating dinner one evening and Fisher was in his usual position lying on the floor between Maya and myself.  He doesn't beg.  He just lays there waiting for a crumb to fall.  Mike hates it and will make him leave but I don't care one bit.  I looked down and noticed a puddle of "water" on the floor behind Fisher's head.  I thought Maya had spilled her drink but she was drinking strawberry milk. Upon closer inspection, I could see said "water" dripping from the mound on fishers neck.  Oh My Goodness the thing had popped!  Not like an explosion but just weeping and weeping.  More like a popped zit.  I know, eeewww.  I warned you.  Well, I left my dinner to attend to my furry child's dripping neck.  Two soaked dish towels and a wash cloth later the mound was gone as if it was never there.  And let me say it was just like water coming from that tumor.  No color, no odor and no slick or stickiness, weird.  That was on Thursday and his surgery was scheduled for Monday.  So Friday I called Doc and told him what had happened.  I suggested he needle the other tumors before cutting him just incase they were fluid filled too.  He agreed but no such luck.  The other two were fatty.

Fisher did great with the surgery, poor guy.  The recovery was nasty as he had drains in the incision on his belly.  Bllluuugggghhh!!! What a mess!  I slept downstairs on the couch with Fisher on his bed beside of me all week to keep and ear and eye on him through the night.  His Elizabethan collar was useless. It rubbed right in the center of the abdominal incision and snagged a staple on his leg the first night.  From that night on, I had to wrap him to keep things together and keep him from licking.  Mike took the couch for the weekend and then the next monday the drain came out.  That made things better but the holes where the drains had been continued to drain for a couple of days.

I removed the stitches and the staples and he's all healed up now.  What a trooper.  I was more concerned about the recovery than the surgery because we've had a bad recovery experience in the past but he did great, even at 11 years old.  We took a hike yesterday and he seems to be back to his old self and feeling even better.  I certainly think it was the right decision.