My furbaby had a liver resection....need some advice please UPDATED

[weisssoccermom]

First of all, this isn't a joke and I hope it doesn't offend anyone on the board who has undergone a liver resection. Today, my last furbaby had a partial liver lobectomy due to a fairly large tumor (10cm X 9.5cm X 5.5cm) in her left lobe. All indications so far (fine needle aspiration cytology report, imaging reports and lack of any other growths in two years) seem to point to a benign tumor or at the very worst, a slow growing malignant tumor. The vet had hope to be able to just remove the tumor but I received word that he had to actually remove part of her lobe.
So, my questions are:
1. what to expect
2. how long did people take to recover
3. silly question.....but as the liver regenerates, do you feel 'differently'? (Not sure what that means...tired, harder to digest foods, etc.)
4. Besides the obvious abdominal pain, does removing a part of your liver cause any type of other pain?

I just don't know what to expect. I fully recognize that how a human/furbaby react is totally different but...I just need to get a rough idea of things like time frame to recover, eating habits, does this surgery affect intestinal function, etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Barring any significant bleeding or other complications, I will be picking Roxy up on Thursday evening and bringing her home. I recognize this was a serious surgery and only want to be prepared. When Lesley had her spleen removed, that was also serious surgery and she rebounded quite quickly. Our furbabies can't talk so we really have no idea how they feel, what to expect, etc.

Thanks for any advice/tips you may have.

[juliej]

It takes a lot of calories to grow back a liver. I didn't have much of an appetite so it was hard for me to gain back the weight I lost from the surgery. I was told to increase my protein to help with liver cell regeneration. So think about what foods your furbaby likes and see if you can provide them. Also, I had some weird cravings -- mainly for orange foods like salmon, sweet potatoes, orange juice, pumpkin, etc. My guess is I needed some nutrient in those foods. So if she isn't interested in her regular foods you might try samples of different items to see if one of those appeals to her.

No pain with the regeneration whatsoever, just pain from the incision. She'll have some swelling in that area so be careful handling her. Put a tee shirt on her to to help prevent licking or scratching of the incision. (I didn't have this problem, just so you know! ) She may not want to move very much or squat to go to the bathroom because her abdominal muscles are sore. It will take awhile before they are completely healed and she moves around normally. Hope she recovers quickly!

Julie

[Nik Colon]

I had 20% removed, didn't feel any different, only the incision pain, then internal burning sensation after a few weeks which gradually faded over a few more weeks.

[bitchslapped]

I think the hardest part of being a mom of a furbaby is being away from them while they are in the hospital since we know they don't understand. I remember calling the night shift to check in, same as I did for other family members. As close as I can come to your situation was when my little Chloe (mini long-haired doxie) was dx w/gallbladder disease & IBD. She went under the knife in 2011 @ age 8 (cut stem to sternum) to remove gallbladder, liver biopsy. It was all so inflamed &also infected in there w/e coli & enterococcus.
Post surgery she was to eat bland foods, i.e. chicken & rice, but she wouldn't eat, was losing weight. So stressful. She was on antibiotics, wore a cone to keep from wound licking etc. She wasn't supposed to exercise or walk for a couple of weeks. That's about all I can remember other than was in overnight only. I think recovery was rather quick like your Leslie. Her incision healed up quite quickly & I suspect that is where any discomfort came from. I would guess within a week or two all was well. Hope all goes well w/Roxy.



My DH was very sore for weeks after liver resection, but don't know that he could differentiate between liver or incisional pain.

Anytime they're moving organs around in there, you're going to be sore, not to mention the incision.

Best Wishes
BS

[Jack&KatiesMommy]

Actually, my 14 year old 3 1/2 lb chihuahua just underwent this same surgery in January. She actually had almost half of her liver removed as the tumor was stradled between both sides of her liver close to the portal vein. They told us that she had less than a 50% chance of surviving the surgery...but that she had no chance of surviving without the surgery as the tumor was so large it was pushing into her other organs.

We proceeded with the surgery and she survived (imagine operating on a liver that is only the size of a lima bean!) Her tumor turned otu to be malignant but the surgeon expects her to outlive the cancer...as it si very slow growing. She did wonderfully! She was in quite a bit of pain for the first week (she was on tramodol) but slowly improved. After 6 weeks (the time it takes for total liver regenration) she was better than ever. We feel so lucky...and hope that your baby does just as well!

Oh, and Silky didn't want to eat afterward, etihter. BUT iti si sooo imporatnt to get high calories into them during the first couple of weeks. I force fed ASilky...using a/d and/or high calorie prescription food that I got from the vet...and I mixed into that food a little bit of hot water and some meat only (not oatmeal or fruit based) baby food. I mixed it all together and used a large syringe and squirted into her mouth three times a day. After abotu 3 days of doing this, she began eating this same mixture off of a spoon when I held it up to her mouth three times a day. After about 2 weeks she was eating a bit more on her own and I began weaning down the feedings. By 3-4 weeks post surgery, she was pretty much eating on her own and back to normal.
Cynthia

[ziggymonster]

I don't know about recovery time, but I had to force feed one of my beloved poodles while he recovered. Used a blender (VitaMix) and put in protein powder, with cooked meat, cooked eggs, cooked potatoes, and whatever else I felt like adding...used pedialite for the liquid...got my turkey baster and 3-5 times a day Mozie got about a cup of glop !! My vet was amazed how well he did.He didn't like it but thrived !!Good luck.

[bitchslapped]

I force fed Chloe w/a dropper. Not a lot, but some meds require food, some not. Felt bad about doing that then & feel bad about that to this day, but @ the time was desperate to get some calories in her as she was losing weight, not eating @ all. No matter what I tried to entice her with, she wasn't interested & her diet always consisted of kibble, no table scraps. So that was very concerning. Wasn't going for chicken, rice, cottage cheese, canned dog food, baby food. She wasn't having any of it. Think I Mentioned force feeding to her reg vet @ a followup appt & she didn't respond to that. Curious for CRguy to weigh in on this.
Hopefully, w/Roxy in the hospital for a few days, this w/b a nonissue for you, but certainly something to ask the vet about.

BS

[weisssoccermom]

Talked to the vet hospital today to see how Roxy was. As most of you have said, she didn't want to eat her regular food. Usually, she gets the following for both meals:
dry kibble, soft dog food, a little chicken baby food and warm water
Since there was a possibility that Roxy was also getting her teeth cleaned while under anesthesia and there was a possibility of mouth pain (she did get a light cleaning and had a tooth pulled) I sent a lot of her soft dog food. I also sent a few extra jars of baby food.
Roxy refused to eat any of her regular food (she would take her pills...she has a heart murmur....with baby food - normal for her) but they were able to get her to eat a bland Rx canned food that they felt would be easy on her tummy. I made sure that they will send some home with me. I'm not sure if her mouth hurts (it would with a pulled tooth) or if she just doesn't feel well (logical) from the surgery....but whatever the reason, I will make sure that they find some food for her that she will eat. I'm also going to make sure that I boil some chicken breasts tomorrow and have them shredded for her in case that is appealing. I figure if she won't eat them, I'll just freeze the meat and use it for her at a later date.

They said she is alert....on a few pain meds and I'm assuming like when Lesley had her spleen removed, she is probably also on a pain patch ??? I'll find out more tomorrow evening when we pick her up. Thankfully the weather is supposed to be nice so that over the weekend, if it remains warm, we can just take her in the backyard and let her just relax in the sun. Now the wait is on for the path report. My vet is going out of town on Friday and I doubt it will be back by then, but who knows. One of the other vets will let me know what the report says.

[weisssoccermom]

I brought Roxy home today and finally got to see her incision. Understandably, she wants no part of turning over to let me see it but we've been told to check it X 2/day for swelling/infection. Were those of you who had a resection on antibiotics?
She is on amoxicillin and Flagyl for the next ten days along with a pain killer. Thankfully she is eating, although not kibble. Not surprising since she also had a tooth pulled so her mouth may be hurting as well.
She will eat the Rx canned food and I have been supplementing that with chicken baby food and boiled chicken breast pieces.....all easy on the mouth and hopefully full of protein like many of you have indicated. Talked with the vet today...he confirmed that he removed about half of her left lobe so I will keep in mind everything you have said about making sure she has enough protein to help the liver regenerate.
No going downstairs for potty time (we have a daylight basement....the way to access is via the steps) so for the next two weeks, the front yard will just have to do! We do have a ramp which we built for moving the old wood stove and it has been invaluable when Lesley was recuperating from surgery and now for Roxy. She has even come home and made a nice big poop so no worries about her intestines going into 'sleep' mode!

Thank you again for all of the tips and information. I really appreciate it.
Jaynee

[Nik Colon]

As for me, no antibiotics that I recall, just ibuprofen and tylenol (which I hate btw) and lovenox. That's it, but I'm sure with animals they are more worried about infection since they can't keep clean or know like humans.

[dianetavegia]

I had 80% of my liver removed and didn't have antibiotics afterwards. I couldn't take the pain pills and had horrible anorexia type symptoms for about a week. I don't feel different tho my abdomen looks different. Like one side is shaped differently than the other. They cut me 'crooked' tho. Four years later and I still have pain if I try to lift something heavy or open a stuck window but my scans show the area has healed.

I'm glad you caught this early and your pup should be fine. I have 3 dogs and a cat and worry about them like they're children!

Diane