Project: Love Storm

Storm, my BFF, relaxing in the park

For the past few months, Storm has been suffering from skin allergies. I brought her to the vet where they gave her meds and suggested feeding her salmon-based food, being that fish oil is good for the skin. We were already feeding her salmon dry dog food but mixing it her regular dry food. So we cut out her regular dry food, hoping that her rash would clear up.

No major luck, ugh! So now going on 3 weeks, I have been cooking for my BFF. She absolutely loves it, drives me a little crazy because I can’t enter the kitchen without her thinking I’m going to cook! It’s worse than my 13 year old son (her brother), who is an eating machine. I’m all for it though, especially when seeing the results of her skin allergies clearing up. *whew*

Well this Saturday after checking her belly rash, I noticed one of her nipples red and swollen. I immediately thought that she was scratching the area a little too hard and aggravated it. When I looked a little closer, I felt two lumps under her nipple. I dialed the vet to make an appointment to have her examined. The vet confirmed that the two lumps are tumors and need to be removed regardless if they are cancerous or not. Of course a list of questions overwhelmed my mind; whoever knows me personally knows I have questions for days! So I started asking away:

• Why is it necessary to have an x-ray done of the organs?
• Why is a biopsy done after they surgery?
• If it is cancer, are there any additional treatments after the surgery?
• How often do you perform surgery?
• What are the chances of post surgery infection?

Believe me, the above list is nowhere close to how many questions that I asked. Overwhelmed with all the information, surgery is the next step. All holiday shopping has come to a halt and even returning of items is taking place being that the cost of surgery is way out of our range. Being that her condition is now pre-existing she isn’t eligible for insurance. We are praying that the tumor is benign (noncancerous) and no additional treatment will be needed after surgery. I will keep you all updated.