My Guardian Angel has fur and 4 legs.

[pmblondexo]

My female white german shepherd was born on July 22, 2000. I was 9 years old when I first laid my eyes on her. She was shy and would not come out from under a table. I remember that day like it was yesterday. We bought her from a man who bred white german shepherds. When we walked in and he pulled her from under the table (she was the only female left and we wanted a girl) it was love at first sight. We brought her home along with a hot pink collar, a leash to match, a purple puppy bed and a "snowy" name tag. My sister and I wanted to name her snow white but my mom and dad thought snowy would work better She was a shy little girl at first but then blossomed into a playful puppy at about 4 months old. She was unlike any dog I had ever met. She trusted us and never once bit anyone. She was the type of dog that was always curious and never liked to be away from her family. She loved us so much. In July of 2011 Snowy developed what we all thought was an ingrown hair. She was a long haired German Shepherd and would frequently develop them. They would disappear on their own. After having this lump for about a week we noticed that it was bleeding. It wasn't dripping blood but because she had a white coat anything that wasn't white would stick out. We cared for it like an ingrown hair putting anti bacterial gel on it like a vet recommended (she wasn't seen since it had all the characteristics pointing to an ingrown hair). After another week or so is when it really started bothering her. We noticed that she has actually bit a hole into the lump (the lump was about the size of a golf ball at this point). Scared and confused we made an appointment as soon as possible to the only animal hospital that had an appointment open the next day. We took Snowy in and after the vet who only seemed to care about the money, looked at snowy for about 2 minutes said "this looks like it needs to come off. I don't know what it is but it needs to be removed." With how much this operation would cost the furthest from our minds we were open to taking the risk since this vet said she was very confident that it was a lipoma and it would be minor surgery. Our Snowy was 10 years and 11 months which scared us since she was old. But we trusted the vet and decided to do the surgery. She survived through the surgery and a week after seemed back to her old, playful, loving self. That's until August of 2011 when this "lipoma" came back angry and 3 times as worse. This wasn't just 1 lump this was multiple, ulcerated lumps that were the size of my whole hand. This "thing" seemed to develop over night. I was shocked. What was taking over my beautiful girl. We then decided we wanted a second opinion. There was no way this was another lipoma that grew back this fast but worse in the same exact spot. So we finally got an appointment with an amazing vet, Dr. Sue of Manor Animal Hospital. She took a sample of this mean thing with a slide and said that this thing was angry and that the other vet misdiagnosed our baby girl because this was NOT a lipoma. Scared and concerned me and my mom asked her what she though it could be because we looked everything up and we couldn't find one thing that this could be. She said "it looks like a mast cell tumor" Dr. Sue confirmed the diagnosis 2 days later and started her on steroids, antibiotics and benedryl. We got this diagnosis in the middle of September. (No we did not allow this lump to stay on her for the whole month of August, we took her to this vet at their earliest appointment which was around August 25th and the lump grew back around August 20th) Our pretty girl was doing pretty well with these medications up until the end of September. They were no longer working and the tumor got out of control. She was sent to be with God on October 12, 2011. She was 11 years and 1 month old when she lost her battle to cancer. We could no longer watch her suffer. Due to the misdiagnosis of the first vet Snowy was over taken by this tumor which took over her whole side. The thing with mast cell tumors is that if you do not cut out all of it, it will grow back worse. This is what happened with Snowy. So please don't settle for the earliest appointment when it comes to lumps, only settle for your trusted Vet!
R.I.P Snowy
July 22, 2000 - October 12, 2011
You will NEVER be forgotten.

[Stosh]

I'm so sorry you lost your beautiful girl. Try not to beat yourselves up over the misdiagnosis, you were doing what you thought was best. Even if it had been caught the first time there's no guarantee that she wouldn't have developed the fatal carcinoma anyway. You and your family gave her a long happy healthy life

[mahhi22]

My sympathies in the loss of your beloved Snowy. I know the heartbreak too well having recently lost my 11 yr old boy. Not only did you & your family give Snowy a good life. She gave you a good life too. It goes two ways.

[elsie]

[Warrior09]

I know how you feel sweetheart I lost my 13 year old boy back I 08 and till this day I miss him more and more but I know he is with me and I know that he isn't suffering anymore.