Worried that the cancer was within a vital system or an internal tumor had surfaced, we took him in for an ultrasound and a liver aspiration. Although the treatment wasn’t cheap, we were happy to find out that he had a slight gall bladder infection and that was likely causing the elevation. No tumors or systematic anomalies were found. Now, he is on antibiotics for the infection and his liver count is slowly decreasing. As a 6-year-old, 120lb. mastiff, he is doing pretty darn good and we hope that once the chemo is over we won’t have to deal with the “c” word again!

We had a little scare last week. The vet has asked us to keep an eye on the area around Hugo’s suture for any returning tumors. Within a couple of days of the surgery, a mass had started to form just below the suture line, so I immediately freaked out and thought it was cancer. We took him to the vet just to be safe (he needed to have his anal glands expressed anyway) and it was only a buildup of fluid under the wound. So we are putting a warm compress on the area twice a day to help alleviate the liquid.

Hugo is scheduled to have his sutures removed tomorrow and we will chat with the vet a little more on follow-up treatment. So far, he is acting like his old self. Our fingers are crossed that this is the last battle with MCT.