Wow, what a week.  Let me start from the begining.  My name is Mosa, and Mom and I are having to cope with some big stuff right now.  It started one morning when I felt this pain in my belly and I just had to lay down.  My Mom got worried and tried to get me up, and I wanted to do what she asked, but I just didn’t have the strength to get up.  It came on me all of a sudden, I had no idea what was happening, and neither did my Mom.  We got real lucky and were able to get in to see Dr. Paula that day (Lisa at the front desk kinda likes me, I think…..) and when Mom described what happened to me to Dr. Paula, she got this funny look on her face — kind of worried-like.  She hadn’t ever looked at me that way before.  Well, that look meant that I needed some tests — x-rays, blood tests, and an ultrasound of my belly.  Sure enough, Dr. Paula’s worries were confirmed — I had a mass on my spleen that had ruptured that morning.   She says that I am really lucky to be alive — lots of dogs don’t survive the rupture of a splenic mass — but I guess I clotted better than some.  Now Dr. Paula explained to Mom that a mass on the spleen can be benign, like a blood blister, but it is still serious, because the spleen filters all the blood, and when a spleen ruptures, there’s a lot of bleeding into the belly.  She also said that many of these masses are tumors, called hemangiosarcomas.  Dr. Beck, the radiologist, looked at all my abdominal organs to see if she could see any other tumors in my belly, and she didn’t see any.  That’s a good thing — just the one mass on the spleen.  Dr. Paula checked all my blood tests, and found no reason for the mass, like a bleeding disorder, or Tick Fever ( Ehrlichia).  So she and Mom talked real serious-like, and decided to schedule me for surgery as soon as possible.  I started taking these chinese herbs to help me to clot better before surgery, and my Mom really spoiled me even more than usual for those few days before surgery.  It was great!  So the day of surgery came, Mom took me to the veterinary hospital, and I really got a lot of kisses that day!  I don’t remember much about that day–I was there, then I went to sleep, and I woke up feeling really dizzy.  That Dr. Paula gave me some Good drugs, I didn’t hurt, but I didn’t feel like my regular self, that’s for sure.  I had a bandage on most of my body, and I wasn’t walking so good.  Anyway, I got to go home with Mom that night — she was awfully worried, but she tried not to let me see it.  Oh yeah, the other thing they told me — I got a big blood transfusion from Lisa’s 10 month old pup — no wonder I am starting to feel so good!  Today I went in to have my incision checked and get my bandage changed, and Dr. Paula told us that the biopsy results came in.  She wasn’t smiling — it was the hemangiosarcoma tumor on my spleen.  The good news is that they didn’t see any tumors that had metastasized before surgery, but the concern is that since the tumor had ruptured, the tumor cells could have gone anywhere in my belly to cause other tumors to grow.   Now I’m not a young pup, and my Mom doesn’t want to put me through any chemotherapy at my age, so Dr. Paula mixed up some more of those chinese herbs to try to help my immune system fight any new tumors, and to help to change the imbalances in my body that set up the tumor formation in the beginning.  They don’t taste so bad, and I am getting some really good food right now, so I don’t really mind.  I just hope I can have some more really good quality time with my Mom — she’s kind of special, you know.  I feel fine, Dr. Paula says I just may not have any more trouble from this, but we have to check in every few months, just to be sure.  That’s OK, I don’t mind — I sure feel better now that that thing is out of my belly, so I can get back to my regular life.  My Mom still needs me, and I have a lot of work to do, which right now is called sleeping…….

So the reason for my telling you this story is so that if you see a collapse like mine, you will know that it could be serious, and you need to see a vet as soon as possible.   Hopefully this is the end of my tumor story, since we caught it right after the first rupture.  I’ll keep you posted.