Survivors Story

Survivor is a gorgeous Rottweiler who was sadly diagnosed with a splenic mass, but this amazing boys story doesn’t end there. He had his mass removed and is on the road to a full recovery. The spleen is a organ that almost all animals have it is mostly used for filtering the blood. E.g removing micro organisms and dead red blood cells. This organ usually works well through an animals whole life, but on an occasion a mass involving this organ does start to grow.

The types of masses that grow involving the spleen can be either malignant (a tumour that spreads to other cells surrounding it and can also spread to other organs in the body) or benign (a tumour that grows but does not spread). In approximately 35% of all splenic masses in dogs are malignant whereas the rest are usually benign. The danger with having a splenic mass, whether malignant or benign, is the risk of the mass rupturing, this is due to the fact that these masses usually growing very large due to the rich blood supply. This organ holds stores of blood that can leak out into the abdomen if the mass does rupture causing the patient to lose too much blood. The patient then needs emergency surgery and usually a blood transfusion to survive. If caught early enough the spleen and mass can usually be removed safely which in cases where the mass is benign result in the animal being cured. On rare occasions the patient still may need a blood transfusion.