Canine Cancer + Update

Guess I'm trying to get caught up on communications a bit today.

Some of you already know, but recently our older dog, Tucker, was diagnosed with cancer. He will be seven years old in October, and so he's only just entering the "senior" years. Old enough to be called the "Old Man" of the house, but more or less still only middle aged.

Tucker is a Boxx, which is a Boxer-mix, and Boxer's are well known for cancer in the older years. He's had a number of skin tags & other benign growths turn up within the past year, but nothing of real concern until a couple of weeks ago when we discovered a large, hard mass in the end of his pemuce (his sheath). It had grown quickly because we hadn't noticed anything, and then suddenly there it was, and almost the size of a golfball.

They (the animal hospital) asperated and the cells didn't look good so they scheduled him for surgery a few days later. We shed quite a few tears over the weekend in waiting & wondering what would come of everything... in our home, animals are not so much 'pets' as they are considered our companions... members of our family. They're our fur-babies!

The surgery came & went and he did very well. they were able to remove it completely, at least they feel pretty good that they did, or close to it at any rate. Then, it was another few days to wait for his post-op check-up and the biopsy results.

I am very pleased (& relieved!) to say that our prayers were answered, and his grading came back much less than what was initially feared by the doctors. Only 2cm was Grade II (malignant) and the rest was still in the Grade I stage (pre-cancer) so things look a LOT better for his prognosis.

There is no telling how long it will be before the tumor grows back, and they said it most likely will,.. but for now, he's doing well!

Anyway, thanks to everyone who shared their concern, support & understanding in this. I had taken the diagnosis pretty hard, and to have the support of others who knew exactly how I was feeling meant a great deal to me so thanks again, you are awesome!

(((HUGS)))