Seth is a 6 year old Staffy Cross who is very much loved by his owners Nathan and Lyndsey. They initially thought he was putting on weight as he started developing a pot belly as he was still happy in himself, eating and drinking normally. It was not until Seth suddenly became very unwell and started developing some breathing difficulties that they realized something was not right with Seth. It was also around this time when they realized Seth really was losing weight as his spine started protruding despite still having a pot belly.
When we first saw Seth, he was suffering from a fever and we could palpate a large mass in his abdomen. He was panting a lot and had difficulty breathing. We hospitalised him immediately and commenced treatment with intravenous fluids and pain relief to stabilise him. The next step was to run some tests and so a blood test and abdominal radiographs were taken. This showed Seth had a very large abdominal tumor but we could not identify which organ it was at this stage. After discussing with Nathan and Lyndsey, we decided to take Seth into surgery to investigate and hopefully remove the mass in his abdomen.
Exploratory abdominal surgery revealed that the large abdominal mass was a tumor of the spleen and it weighed a total of 3.5kg (the size of a newborn baby!) to be exact. Poor Seth only weighed a mere 22kg after the tumor was removed. Due to the large size of the mass, Seth promptly went into shock after it was removed and was under intensive monitoring receiving two blood transfusions and an artificial plasma transfusion and constant monitoring of his vitals. Despite the mass being successfully removed, Seth was not out of the woods at all yet and his odds did not look too great at this stage. We were all very worried but could only wait to see if he was going to pull through this ordeal.
Seth seem to know we were all rooting for him and it was to our great relief when Seth eventually came out of shock and started to eat and drink by himself. He was then discharged into the loving arms of Nathan and Lyndsey who could not be happier to have their dear Seth back with them.
We then received further good news from the laboratory that the tumor that Seth had was benign and despite it being so large, he should make a full recovery with lots of tender loving care. Nathan and Lyndsey are now trying to get Seth to put on weight as the tumor had taken a real toll on his poor little body. The trio are thrilled to be reunited and here’s hoping that Seth will have many more years with Nathan and Lyndsey who love him beyond words.
