I'm very sorryOdd timing.
A littler over a week ago, I took my Black Lab/Pitbull mix in for his annual periodontal work. About a week before, he had been in and had his blood work done because he was 11 and he need to be checked before they could put him under to do his teeth. Everything was fine at the checkup.
So, when he went to get his teeth cleaned and was knocked out and completely relaxed, the vet found a growth in his abdomen. He did an ultrasound and X-Ray and found an 8-10 pound tumor on his Spleen. You couldn't detect it when he was standing up, but when he was unconscious, the vet saw the protrusion. Because he had just had his teeth cleaned and that releases a lot of bacteria into the body, we had to wait a week to get him in for surgery. He went in this morning at 0830.
I got a call about an hour and a half ago saying the surgery was complete, the removed his spleen and about a 9 pound tumor. He was still asleep, but the prognosis looked good. He probzbly had a couple more good, pain free years ahead of him. While I was talking to the Vet, you could hear his tech call him and say he needed him right away because Festus was suddenly having trouble breathing. He said he had to go and would call me back. He called me back about 20 minutes later and told me he had gone into shock, stopped breathing and they could not resuscitate him. He died a little over an hour ago.
Festus was special to me because somebody had thrown him out of a moving car when he was about 6 months old. Some friends of mine saw it happen and were able to get him out of traffic. They didn't want to send him to a shelter and they couldn't keep him, they were both in their mid sixties at the time and a young high energy Black Lab pup was not going to work well for them. They called me because they knew my English Shepherd had died of natural causes a few months earlier and invited me up to meet him. I took him home that day and had 11 years with him before he died today.
He was a good friend.
The Vet said based on the condition of the Spleen and size of the tumor, without the surgery, he would probably have been dead in less than a month. The surgery at least gave him a chance. Between the removal of the Spleen and the removal of the tumor itself, it was just too much for him. He made it through the surgery itself, then went into shock.
I had to call my wife, who is currently in Georgia and break the news to her.
Today sucks.