Gunner's Story

Gunner gave us quite a scare this week…………… a sudden and very fast growing bump appeared on his incision side, in the rib cage area. It was larger than a softball and very hard to the touch.

My grand daughters are visiting  (6 & 13) and new to the idea that Gunner had recently lost his leg. They had begun to adjust to the facts and see that Gunner was doing a wonderful job with his three good legs and that he was not “Poor Gunner”!

Off we went to the Vet.   The look on the Tech’s face was pretty alarming. The Vet drew a few samples to send out to pathology. He said he didn’t like the looks of this at all. The size of the mass and the fact that it felt solid. His expression wasn’t good either. He tried to be discreet with the girls present and said from the looks of the situation we had a huge problem here. Based on the results from pathology, we would have to make some serious decisions. He said this could be a time to consider “quality of life” and cost and course of treatment. He mentioned Chemo & medication. We’d talk later when the results came back. Meanwhile we’d run some antibiotics just incase.

OH MY! Weak in the knees we headed back home with Gunner to wait for the phone call. The girls petted Gunner and told him he’d be ok. It was a long weekend for Grandma!

The mass increased to melon size. Sunday night a sore was visable and it began to drain. By monday morning it was almost empty but the sore spot increased in size to a couple inches and very deep.

The pathology report was negative. Abscess of unknown cause. So many possible causes but no way to know for sure. Could be a puncture wound, insect bite or alergic reaction………numerous possibilities. The course of treatment would be antibiotics and daily wound site cleaning. It’s expected to close on it’s own in a week or two.

Oh my goodness Gunner!!!! What a scare! Now the girls are saying “poor Grandma”!  

Gunner has his 4th Birthday coming up on Saturday. I guess we’ll go ahead with the party plans and celebrate.