Hoping to make a difference!

Yesterday, Dr. Walshaw performed a premaxillectomy on one of the sweet Chihuahua's rescued from that horrible scene in Dearborn where over a hundred live dogs were found in a home along with over a hundred that had died. This little 7-10 year old male Chihuahua, named Stevie, was found to have a tumor on the rostral (front) part of the maxilla which was protruding under the lip. Today, he looks great! He's still having to be encouraged to eat but is expected to make a full recovery. Although biopsy and margin reports are still pending, our suspicion is either benign epulis or low grade malignancy. Treatment, hopefully, will be curative. Without this surgery, the mass would have continued to grow and destroy the architecture of his maxilla, become ulcerated and bleed, and cause great difficulty in eating. Without surgery, adoption would have been difficult. This type of surgery typically costs between $2500-3500, but in order to join the overwhelming effort to help these poor dogs, our hospital donated these services so that Stevie will be able to find a "forever" home disease-free and pain-free. Steve's foster mom said that he just recently barked for the first time and didn't know what grass was when she put him down on her lawn. I'll keep you updated on the biopsy results and Stevie's progress and will add pictures soon!