Rolling Dog Farm Blog

Our blind dog Bud has not been doing well the past few days.  He’s hasn’t shown much interest in food, and what little food Bud does eat he often throws up … but not all the time.  He seems a bit disoriented, distant, lethargic, and just not his usual responsive self.  Beth and Kathryn described him as suddenly acting and looking very old.  Yet Kathryn checked his vital signs yesterday and everything was normal.

Bud has had his "off" spells in the past, but this didn’t seem like one of those … and at the very least, we didn’t want to make that assumption.  So I took him in to see our internal medicine specialist in Missoula, Dr. Dave Bostwick, this afternoon.

Dave did a complete physical exam and found nothing unusual, and Bud’s vital signs were all within range today, too.  Next up was the ultrasound, which is what we’re doing in this photo.  Dave found a small (1.8 cm) mass in Bud’s spleen, which could be the source of the problem … or could be coincidental. 

Dave said that typically one-third of masses in the spleen are benign and two-thirds are malignant.  (I didn’t like the sound of those odds.)  The only way to find out, of course, is a biopsy.

The ultrasound showed all of Bud’s other organs looking normal, as did his heart.  There was nothing abnormal in the urinalysis.  Dave drew blood for a complete blood count and chemistry panel, and we should have those results in the next 24 hours.  The blood work will probably answer a lot of questions, and then we’ll go from there in terms of the biopsy. 

Bud is wearing a muzzle during the ultrasound because he can get a wee-bit snappy when stressed — not aggressive "I-want-to-hurt-you" snappy, but "please-don’t-do-this-I-don’t-like-it" snappy.  He doesn’t actually try to bite, it’s more like snapping at the air, but we learned it’s best to muzzle him during procedures like this.

(This has nothing to do with anything, but a few months ago we came up with a great name for a band:  Dr. Dave and the Ultrasounds!)

(Click on photos for larger image.)