I'm not looking for any advice, just need to DO something as the waiting is killing me! I'm sure you all know how I feel.

I dropped Buster at the vets this morning, he's in surgery today for the removal of his perianal adenoma. I hate this waiting, waiting for a call from the vets to let me know how things have gone.

There are no expected problems, but there is always a risk with surgery, also every time Buster has seen a vet in the past 12 months they make a point of saying "he's old for his breed", so that's an extra worry. (He's 7yrs old).

The usual treatment for this would also involve castrating him, but his vet doesn't think the pros of castration out-weight the cons (the cons being another procedure and the possibility of weight gain), so at least he gets to keep his 'noo-noos'.

He's had the tumor for about 10 months now. It's got bigger & bigger, now it's about the size of a golf ball. The tumor itself is not bothering Buster, even though he often cuts it on the floor and it bleeds often. But it's causing infections in his anal glands and more recently a huge area of pyoderma (sp?) in his rear leg that caused so much swelling in the skin it felt like a grapefruit in his leg and he was unwell with it. He's been on anti biotics for a couple of weeks, now he's feeling better he's having his tumor removed.

I'll post with updates later. I'm to 'phone the vets if I've not heard from them by 2pm. It's gonna be a loooonng day!

Buster is OK, the op went to plan. Have to wait a little while for him to wake up enough to bring home. :-)

So glad he is ok and hope his recovery goes well x

Glad 6you will have him home soon

Just seen your post. Hope all is well with Buster. My Tag had the same 5 years ago at the age of 9+. He's 15 next week and doing fine -still active and 'top dog'. I regret , however, agreeing to having him castrated at the time. The vet persuaded me that this was advisable and I didn't resist. He gained weight around his hips and just seemed to age more quickly. Nevertheless, he's still 'up for it' with the girls and keeps the younger lads in their place.

Only just seen your post Kerry.  I have heard so much from you, over the years, about Buster, and I feel that I "know" him. 

I'm so glad that all is well.  Does it take ages to recover after this procedure?  I so hope that he is soon back to his usual self, he seems such a character. 

Thinking of you both.  Jean  xxx

Also only just read this. Glad all is well so far, fingers and paws crossed for a good and speedy recovery now -and many more years!!

Thanks all :)

Buster came home yesterday evening, very wobbly on his feet, rather disorientated and extremely stressed out, bless him. He's much more settled today, occasionally slightly unsteady on his feet, a little subdued but much happier.
He is terrified of getting in the car and stressed about going into the vets, usually we have the vet come to he house to see him as a trip out in the car to the vets stresses him out so much that it can take a couple of days for him top get over the trauma of it and man-handling him in & out of the car usually makes his legs sore for a day or 2 (arthritis). So I'm not too sure how much of his subdued, sorry for his-self, behaviour today is from the anasthetic, post-op pain or general stress, or a mix of all 3.

> Does it take ages to recover after this procedure?

All going well it should be a quick, easy recovery.
The tumor (non-cancerous, testosterone driven) was external, a couple of inches below his anus, allthough the tumor itself was large it was like it was attached via a thin 'stalk' so not much holding it on. A small margin around the attachment site was also taken, hopefully enough to prevent it regrowing, the vet would have liked to have taken more of a margin but didn't want to risk upsetting muscles or nerves leading to fecal incontinance. All in all there is a neat little wound of only about 1 inch long (sounds quite big, but Buster has a very big rear end so it looks like a very small wound :) ).
Recovery should be fine, the worse thing for him is the ordeal of being shoved in the car, left at the vets, then shoved in the car to be brought home! His rear end is rather puffy and swollen at the moment, but the bloody discharge the vet was expecting to last for up to 2 days has all ready stopped :) He's on anti biotics as there was still a sign of slight infection where he had the pyoderma. He's on Metecam for his arthritis anyway, so that is all he has for post-op pain.

I was told he had a poop at the vets before we picked him up, but he's not done one at home with us. A couple of times he has wandered around the lawn as if he wanted a poop but ended up not even trying, so I will be happy once I've seen him poop with my own eyes (LOL, only fellow dog owners would understand that comment!).

> My Tag had the same 5 years ago at the age of 9+. He's 15 next week and doing fine -still active and 'top dog'

That's great to hear :)

> I regret , however, agreeing to having him castrated at the time. The vet persuaded me that this was advisable and I didn't resist.

The vet that came out to our house to see Buster said he would need to be castrated, due to it being a testosterone driven tumor, he also said that he would first discuss the matter with Busters own vet before anything was decided (both vets from the same surgery, but Busters 'own' vet is the one I deal with when I have a choice of who to see), of course I agreed, castration sounded like the perfect choice!
Busters own vet 'phoned me later that day to say that no, castration would not be in Busters best interests as it would not guarantee that the tumor would not re-grow, it would only make it more likely to not re-grow and as Buster has bad legs he doesn't want to risk the weight gain.

I'm so glad that we get to see this vet, he was always great with our last dog and is still proving to be a great vet with Buster.

I'm glad that you have Buster safely back home.  Once his stress has settled down I hope he goes from strength to strength. 

You take care.
Jean