Tumors ...

I talked to the vet today about Hoss's tumor biopsy results.

She spoke so quickly, but I caught part of the name she was calling it and it's a Grade 2 Mast Cell tumor.

That link will give you the nuts and bolts, but here's a link to a more fleshed out, not as doom & gloom (worded more nicely, that is) page.

Because it's Grade 2, it's not completely in the free and clear. Although the vet did the "well, this is how they're graded ..." explanation when I flat out asked if she was saying it was malignant.

When your vet says things like "any more tumors that come up or anything that even looks remotely odd has to come out as soon as possible", you tend to go weak in the knees.

Grade 2 tends to go malignant, from what I'm reading. It's not usually malignant or at least not very aggressive when it is. But things that grow or show up need to be dealt with right away.

Grade 3 is worse and we won't even talk about Grade 4 (which the first link doesn't even reference, but the 2nd one does).

She did find a 2nd tumor near the one she removed but, for whatever reason, couldn't remove that one during that surgery. But she wants to as soon as this incision is healed.

I came across another growth just shoulder-side of his front left elbow. This one I discovered a couple days ago - it's small, but there.

And it needs to come out.

He also has this weird, fatty, skin tag thing near his belly that she wants to remove. I thought it was a nipple when I first saw it, then figured out it's a bit too high and ... well ... isn't a nipple.

As it stands right now ...

Hoss goes in Monday to have his stitches removed (we talked game plan for getting that done without injury).

Then we wait for the incision to fully heal.

And then we start scheduling surgeries.

She wants to get that other tumor she saw out as soon as possible and to remove the one I mentioned this afternoon not long after that.

Point being ... they may not be aggressively malignant right now, but they can quickly become so.

And that's where we are.

In other news, he's walking wonderfully and obviously feels tons and tons better.

We'll just have our work cut out for us to make sure he stays that way.