Bobby came out of surgery this afternoon! A few weeks we found a lump the size of a grape at the side of his chest and we quirky scheduled an appointment with the vet to get it removed.  He entered surgery at 10.30am and the removal was complete within the hour.

Bobby wasn't allowed to eat anything from 10.30pm onward last night til dinner today, and given that my dog has a stomach the size of a bottomless pit, this mini fast didn't sit well with him at all. We removed his food and water bowl from the kitchen and leaving only the newspapers there on the floor. When I entered the kitchen the next morning, I saw bits of torn and tattered newspapers all over the friggin floor with scratch marks on the door of the cupboard where we stored Bobby's stash of food and Bobby lying grumpily on the remaining newspapers huffing at me like a wild boar. I deduced that Bobby had gone wandering into the kitchen in the wee hours of the morning in search of food and seeing that we had confiscated his food and water bowl, he threw a hissy fit and started tearing the newspapers apart and threw them all over the floor and tried to pry open the cupboard where we keep his food before finally conceding defeat and sat obstinately on the newspapers and waited for us to feed him.

Typical Bobby.

As a proud mother of my baby, I was so incredibly worried about the surgery because the vet had told us that Bobby would be put under general anesthesia (GA), and had mentioned that some dogs had actually begin to develop complications halfway during the surgery, such as heart palpitations and changes in blood pressure. Though a blood test with the vet pre-surgery showed that Bobby is in reasonably good health, save for his horrendous weight.

Well it turns out we had nothing to worry about. I followed my mum to pick him up from the clinic after I got home, and the vet said that our "boy is very strong", and mentioned that after the surgery when he removed Bobby off the GA and went out for a quick cup of coffee, he came back after a half hour to find Bobby up and awake and barking and whining incessantly and scratching the table wanting to get done and trying to scratch the safety collar off his neck. He made such a huge fuss and a terrible racket that the vet had apparently asked the nurse to quickly call us to quickly pick him up because he was disturbing the other dogs. Only we had to wait til 2pm, because he called us at 12.45pm and the clinic opened again only at 2pm and the staff had to ensure his constant barking and whining and angry huffing.

That's my boy :D

He's got stitches at the side of his chest and he's not allowed to do heavy running or jumping. Basically anything that may cause the stitches to tear. The vet's sent a sample of the lump to the lab for testing but he told that from what he sees, it appears to be a coagulation of fatty acids rather than a cancerous growth. So in other words, it appears to be a lump of fat.

So Bobby isn't allowed to eat anything immediately after, just in case the effects of post-op might upset his stomach. Bobby apparently had a different idea. When we set him loose at home he immediately ran to his food bowl and dipped his snout into the food bowl. Seeing and feeling no food there, he huffed and barked loudly, scratched the newspapers again and walked away in a hissy huff.

My poor baby!

We fed him at around 6pm and now he seems content and happy and he doesn't look as though he's had surgery at all. He's lying in his little bed and sleeping off the antibiotics and painkillers the vet gave him.

Am so glad that Bobby came out fine. The vet says he's got a strong spirit and will. I'm such a proud mama!