Meet Charlie! Charlie was referred to our soft tissue surgery department after being diagnosed with large tumours affecting his liver.
He had developed swelling of his tummy, along with reduced mobility, and recently his appetite had reduced. A CT scan showed multiple large tumours associated with his liver, a small tumour in the entrance of his stomach and a large volume of fluid inside his tummy.
While big liver tumours are often cancerous, the outlook with surgery can be fairly good with the most common cancer that we see. In Charlie’s case surgery was risky due to the size and location of the tumours but given how unwell he was his owner decided to go ahead with surgery in order to give him the best possible chance.
Surgery to remove Charlie’s liver tumours involved removing a large portion of his liver. The tumours were very delicate and bled easily, and Charlie required a blood transfusion during surgery.
We keep units of dog blood on site for emergency use and, a bit like in people, dogs undergoing major surgery with a risk of significant bleeding are blood typed prior to surgery in case they require a transfusion. At the same time as removing the liver tumours, the tumour was also removed from Charlie’s stomach.
Charlie required several days of care in our ICU ward following surgery. He was discharged several days later and since then has continued to improve at home, showing off his new slender physique!
He is now back to his usual self, and we are thrilled to see him active and happy again.
At Wear Referrals we pride ourselves in being the only referral centre in the region with Specialist level soft tissue surgery, oncology and anaesthesia services. This means that we can offer patients like Charlie the best level of surgical care, while making this intervention as safe as possible.