Surgery tomorrow

Not for Angela, not for me or Dean, but for Dudley. A few weeks ago I noticed a small red, slightly raised, inflamed spot under Dudley's ear. I kept an eye on it for a few days, and it was unchanging so decided to wait and see what it did. Although it looked sore, it didn't seem to be bothering him. After a few days, I kind of forgot about it. (I know, bad dog mom!)

Fast forward a couple weeks when I had Dudley to a new groomer. She was showing me how to do some grooming techniques on him. When we got to his ear, and shaved off some of the hair, this is what we found. That was 3 weeks ago, and it's about doubled in size since then. It's now about the size of a golf ball.



Anyway, we had a biopsy done, and found it is what we feared, a fast-growing cancerous growth. We were told it's a benign type of cancer, however, those of you who know Dudley know that since he was about a year old we've had a TERRIBLE time keeping weight on him. He is skin and bones. We've had done all kinds of blood work and other tests, hoping to find a reason for his inability to gain weight, but found nothing. In my gut, I always knew there was a problem lurking that we just couldn't see yet. We've been warned by a vet friend that sometimes, even though a growth is benign, messing with it can cause the system to go haywire and what WAS benign now no longer is. We're praying that's not the case with Dudley!

So tomorrow, as soon as Angela is on the bus, I'll be dropping Dudley off at the vet. Here's a couple pictures from today of my guy.