Tanner and his internal mass - RIP my sweet boy

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I'm so happy!!!

I got the picture of Dr Hébert-Saulnier with Tanner AND the permission to post it on here... so please meet Dr Hébert-Saulnier, who spent the biggest part of the 3-hour surgery bent on my boy, and who later was able to remove enough pus from his abcesses (~25cc) to cure him!

She saved his life twice. I could never thank her enough!

So meet the super talented young vet that definitely is on my good vet list!

 
jorats said:
Wow, she is very young!
As she gets more experience with age, she's going to become even more awesome.

She's an amazing vet, an excellent surgeon, and a very compassionate person. She stayed over an hour late this evening to run some tests on one of my rats to see if there was anything else we could do to help him.
 
Tanner's mass is back. :(

This is not a big surprise, but it is not something I wanted, obviously. The mass is HUGE - going from his sternum to his pelvis, and about 6 cm wide - and trying to operate on him is not even an option. My boy turned 2 years old 4 days ago, he most probably has renal issues, and they would need to operate on the exact same site as before, which does complicate things a lot. Since the first surgery already lasted 3 hours... no way my poor boy would survive a repeat. We switched him from Baytril to Baytril and Noroclav (Clavamox?), since this is the combo that finally got rid of the abcesses the second time - no harm in trying it again, right? I also didn't think of it yesterday but... would it be an option to put him under for a quicker surgery to empty the darn thing and help the abs do their work?

He also has an ulcer on one of his eyes, so he also is treated with drops.

Otherwise, Tanner is doing OK. He eats plenty, he poops fine, he moves about wherever he wants to go, I believe he still is the alpha (and he is great at it! :cheeky: ), but he is back to sleeping on his back, of course. He takes his meds like a champ, making sure the plate doesn't need any cleaning afterwards! He comes to us more now when we open the cage... I believe he's trying to let us know something is wrong. Poor poor baby... may the combo do its magic again and help the abcess regress fast - last time, it lost half of its size within 5 days...
 
Oh that's sad for Tanner. If the surgery to empty it is relatively easy and quick, then it would be nice to drain it. I would think that anaesthetic would be a risk though...
:hugs:
 
Bad news.

The mass keeps growing, apparently, and now seems to be pressing on Tanner's lungs. I called the clinic on Saturday to ask them to try and empty the abcess, and they won't do it, and there's no talking about it. I just wrote to Victoria's vet to ask for his opinion, as I do not feel I can have him euthanized without trying something I believe might work... If he says they are right and nothing should be tempted, I will then love and spoil my boy some more until he has to be let go, knowing I have gone as far as I could. If he says he's willing to try as long as I do not have high hopes of success, then I will put my boy into his capable hands, knowing his time was coming anyways.

I can't believe I will be losing my two blonds within the same week... I am living the worst vacations I have ever had, I almost can't wait for Tuesday to return to work... :(
 
Those are really hard to deal with. I am sorry. I lost a few boys to that and it was not fun at all.
 

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