Nugget is continuing to do well following his mast cell tumor surgery two weeks ago Friday... He also had some teeth removed due to dental issues--I think that's really helping him. Despite our being very careful throughout the years about what he ate and despite daily brushing, he still had issues. So he seems to be feeling a lot better. He gets around just fine, up and down stairs, up on the recliner, defending his turf from the others, etc.
 
Anyway, he had his stitches out yesterday and the pathology report came back as well. The tumor was a grade 1, which is a good thing.. The bad thing is that, while she excised a good wide margin all around  apparently she did not get it all as the path report found some cells in the healthy tissue.. He does seem to be still bothering an area around the incision and we're monitoring this--I can't tell if it's because he irritated some stitches or what. He was not at all happy with having stitches and it was a struggle to keep him from doing anything. The elizabethan collar simply did not work--we could have left it on him but I've never seen a dog so miserable. So we resorted to putting a pair of my 4-year-old daughter's night time pull-ups on him with an opening cut for the tail. We'd have to take it off, of course, when he went outside.. He didn't like even this but it really helped him from leaving the stitches alone.
 
However, the spot near where the tumor was excised (it did come out very easily) looks a bit irritated. So we're carefully monitoring this..
 
Our vet is coming back in a bit to do a dental cleaning on one of our other poodles and she's going to look at the area again, but more than likely we'll have to do another surgery...
 
Nugget is doing unbelievably well for a 12-year-old dog who has been insulin-dependent diabetic for 3 years. Were it not for his cataracts you'd really not know anything was wrong as he's very healthy, very active, eats well (Science W/D)....

owner Kim