SebastianO3paws

Sebastian is doing great, over one year from his surgery.  I know it looks in this picture like he has no front paws, but he is just lying on one!

Not much happening today, Sebastian taking a nice nap right now as is pretty worn out from the extra effort it takes to move around. He is getting around pretty well – today his limp doesn’t seem much worse than the limp he had when he had the tumor on his shoulder. I’m trying to keep him quiet but he has already jumped on and off of my bed before I could get there to help him.

The drain Dr. Palm inserted was supposed to be removed tomorrow, but I just realized I will have guys here installing a new a/c system so I won’t be able to leave!  Will have to reschedule.

Ariel doesn’t seem to notice that anything is different!

Well we’ve been off the grid for a few days – I ended up having a biopsy done on the tumor to make sure it was not a terrible malignancy, at which point I would not have put him through the amputation.

Good news came back last Friday – the tumor was a chondrosarcoma, or a cartilaginous tumor.  It was pretty much localized to Sebastian’s shoulder and appeared to be encapsulated.  He was up and about after the biopsy, still limping on the paw but none the worse for wear.

Given that good news, I made the decision to proceed with the amputation, which took place this morning.  My vet, Dr. Palm, was extremely pleased with the surgery – he got good margins around the tumor, and really did not think that the surgery could have gone any better, and did not see any reason why he couldn’t come home today.

So I picked him up at 5:30pm with his meds and off we went to come home. He is pretty wobbly, but a lot of that is because he is quite doped up.  He is getting around surprisingly well, and I’m certain that by the time his stitches (and there are a lot of them) come out, he’ll be his normal active new self.

It looks pretty horrible, but he put lots of stitches in to make sure it stays closed

I had recently purchased an Out of Sight Litter box (https://outofsightlitterbox.com) which is awesome, but I’m not sure how he will adjust to it right now – setting up a lower box for his recovery period.  Unfortunately, I’m sure that means his sister, Ariel will use the lower box as well, but it’s not the end of the world.

Here’s a picture of Sebastion and Ariel in their younger days.  Sebastian is on the right, Ariel on the left:  

That’s it for now, going to see if Sebastian wants a bite to eat.  The vet said as soon as he was hungry I could feed him a little something.

T

Monday, May 23, 2016 Went to see Dr. Palm 

Made an appointment to see Dr. Palm to get his opinion on Sebastian’s prognosis. He did another X-Ray and and back with encouraging news.

He did not see any mastication of the bone, and no spots in his lungs. He said it is highly unlikely that the tumor is malignant. The blood work will tell the tale.

Sebastian also has full range of motion of his arm and shoulder which is also encouraging news.

So we wait until the blood work comes back, which could be Wednesday. If it is clear, then surgery on Thursday!