21-Pound Tumor Removed From Lucky Labrador!
A 13 year-old Yellow Lab named Warren, will live to bark another day thanks to the surgeons at Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston.
Dr. Michael Pavletic, Director of Surgical Services, said that the giant tumor was partially obstructing the dog’s larynx, thus making it hard for him to breathe. “Warren had the largest external tumor that I have personally seen in my 35 years as a veterinary surgeon,the tumor had slowly grown to one sixth of Warren’s body weight making it difficult for him to walk and making his breathing increasingly labored.”
Warrens surgical team included Pain Medicine Specialist Dr. Lisa Moses and the hospital’s board-certified Emergency and Critical Care Specialist, Dr. Kiko Bracker. Given Warren’s age and the tumor’s size, the risks for the procedure were high. Luckily everything turned out for the best for this lucky pup!
Warren has spent the past 5 months making a slow recovery from his surgery and this past Wednesday he reunited with the medical team that helped saved his life. His owner Julie Vaughan, couldn’t say enough good things about her veterinarian’s: “Dr. Duddy (Warren’s primary vet) called us three times with updates during the surgery and the entire staff was incredibly empathetic when we decided to have Warren undergo such major surgery. In fact, Dr. Pavletic operated on Warren when he was three years old to remove a mast cell tumor on his chest. So we are twice grateful.”
*Warning for the squeamish* A Photo of the tumor is under the cut.
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September 24th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
I don’t mean to sound like a jerk, but if it was external it must not have been hidden. With all due respect, may I ask why the tumor had grown to be so big before it was finally removed? I swear I don’t mean to sound judgmental. Our oldest dog gets fatty tumors a lot and we have to make decisions about when to finally remove them … or not.
September 24th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Stacy,
I think that’s a very good question and I was wondering that myself. I’ll let you know if I find out why the vets chose to wait to remove Warren’s tumor instead of opting for surgery earlier.
-Dan