Support Gucci's Urgent Surgery ❤️

Following a year of on again, off again GI issues, I found out this week that what was a small spot on Gucci’s spleen last year had increased in size considerably. We thought this might be attributing to the continued GI issues. I was not considering anything invasive at the time, so we left the Vet with Gucci on a palliative care plan. I was devastated.

How would I do life without Miles’ sweet girl? Gucci has been by my side since Miles passed and just having her with me, I feel closer to Miles. In 2017 Gucci joined our family as Miles emotional support animal and she is now mine.

I inquired with the Vet about surgery and it was a difficult call, I felt weak with the emotions of the “what if”, when I stood up my knees wanted to give out. Gucci’s need for surgery was urgent. Without surgery to remove her spleen, it would continue to increase in size and quite possibly could rupture causing internal bleeding. I decided I had to give her a fighting chance and took her to the animal hospital to be evaluated for surgery. I was numb waiting to know if she was a good candidate. This would be dependent on her ultrasound, her heart, age and any other issues – not yet known.

Gucci stayed overnight last night, as she was an urgent case a critical case bumped her surgery to today. When shaving her for surgery, the doctor found a tumor on her vulva and the only way to urinate following that would be to do reconstructive surgery. I understand that I am already buying time with her and I chose to just do the splenectomy, since my original fear was that it would rupture. We are going to biopsy the tumor and mass on her spleen and monitor her.

The doctor called following her surgery this morning, she came through just fine. No issues with anesthesia, her liver looked good and did not have any signs of nodules or growths, and her heart did not experience an arrhythmia – which can sometimes happen once the spleen is removed due to reduced blood supply in the body. They were able to remove her spleen (the mass larger than a baseball) and took samples from her small intestine (they were only going to do this if she was doing well while under). The intestinal samples may help us to know how to treat her GI better so she can have a more comfortable quality of life, and she won’t need to be on medication following her splenectomy like humans need to.

Processing grief has been challenging, it doesn’t seem like almost 5 years without my son – through it all, Gucci has been an enormous comfort. I was not ready to layer more grief on top of what some days is more emotional pain than I have ever experienced. I realized that I need more time with Gucci and she deserves more time, she’s still loving, happy and smiling and really is the best dog.

I friend suggested I create this page to help with Gucci’s current medical bill. Any help is more than I expect and humbly appreciated. Thank you for helping me to have more time with my sweet girl. ❤️