Jose’s brain tumor came back and this time inside his brain instead of in between his brain and skull. He started having seizures, first one and then again 3-4 weeks later, then 2 days later, then 2 days later and every 2-3 hours. We rushed him to the emergency vet at 2:30am. They stabilized him and we waited to hear from the neurosurgeon who, with our permission, did a CT scan and delivered the sad news.
Thanksgiving has not been the best time for us. 3 dogs were diagnosed with cancer of some sort around Thanksgiving and 2 passed away right before Thanksgiving.
Jose was diagnosed with Multilobular Osteochondrosarcoma (MLO) back in 2021. He did well after recovering from surgery and radiation therapy 1 yr 7 months ago September. Unfortunately, it grew back but again, we didn’t realize it right away as it did not affect him the same way as previously. This time, all of a sudden he seemed to loose his eye site! However, his balance was fine. My husband then noticed that the ridge on his head was smooth on one side. Needles to say we went from vet to NC State to CVS in Winston Salem, NC
Now he is 16 days post surgery for removal of that tumor. This time they did not have to remove any skull or create a titanium mesh skull cap which is good as that means less time under anesthesia. He will not have radiation as NC State said he got a good dose the first time. His neurosurgeon is looking into chemo and I’ve contacted a holistic vet in Davidson, NC who is going to review his blood work that we drew specifically for her.
He came home from the hospital on a muscle relaxer, gabapentin, an antibiotic and prednisone. Today he is on .5 of prednisone and we put him back on .25 of a pill of gabapentin 2x a day as he had a seizure last night. Ugh. Hopefully, it was just part of his recovery.
Here are some pics from before he was ever diagnosed till. today.
This is way back, probably 2019.
After the first surgery (Dec 2021) and radiation(Feb 2022) . The fur on top of his head where they did radiation grew back mostly light tan. What looks like a bump is his skull. His head never entirely filled in with muscle.
Shortly before his second diagnosis.
This was 13 days after surgery. Oct 25th. I had to take him to work with me. I have someone who comes for 4 hours to walk him several times and feed him lunch but she couldn’t make it this day. He finally got bored and tired.
