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Can your dog be too old to have surgery? Probably not!

This is Buddha. She is 16 years old and fairly healthy. There have been a few lumps that we have been holding off removing because of her age. Then one lump on her chest started getting larger and redder and started to ulcerate. The lump was obviously aggressive and had grown to a really difficult size to remove. It is a big decision to do surgery on a dog of her age but there was little choice.

Buddha had blood tests to make sure the anaesthetic would be safe. Once anaesthetised the area was prepared for surgery. At 10cm in diameter the lump was bigger than a softball. Closing the skin after removal of the tumour was going to be challenging then healing in this difficult location may be very slow. We will skip the gory bits this time. Surgery took quite some time with numerous internal tension sutures.

With a huge skin deficit and the potential of bleeding, a pressure dressing was applied for 5 days. Buddha recovered amazingly well and was home that evening.

Five days later the dressing is removed and the wound looks great. Buddha is very happy.

Sutures are removed 2 weeks after surgery. Buddha is happy, eating well and much more mobile than she has been for months. Is 16 years to old to do surgery? Buddha doesn’t think so.   Explore all our interesting posts

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