Tama's health update

Shortly after Tama's 9th birthday...

I was petting her as she napped on a peaceful holiday afternoon when I noticed two small lumps on her lower abdominal breast.
I thought to myself, "No way, she has a mammary tumor..."
A few days later (April 7), I visited my veterinary clinic and found that it was indeed so.
Mammary tumors occur at a high rate in unneutered females, and about 50% of these tumors are malignant cancers. If detected too late, it can lead to death, and even if the tumor is removed, there is still the chance it will have metastasized . Sometimes even benign tumours can become enlarged and rupture.
We did not want Tama to enter the field season in this condition.
If it is malignant, it could be fatal.

Therefore, we decided to ask our veterinarian to perform the surgery.
After coordinating with the veterinarian, the earliest possible date for the surgery was April 19th, so we immediately made an appointment for that date.

And the surgery to remove the tumor on April 19th went well!
When I went to pick Tama up at the veterinary clinic, she looked very tired. She had done a good job!
In fact, April 19th, the day Tama underwent her surgery at the veterinary clinic, is actually the same day I lost Bullet 10 years ago. And to my surprise, he was the same age as Tama is now, 9 years old.

Bullet was my first bear dog that I got from Ms. Carrie Hunt and the Wind River Bear Institute in the United States in 2004. He died of acute myelogenous leukemia in 2013, but until the moment of his death, he dedicated his entire life to the coexistence of humans and bears.
Since Tama came from the WRBI in 2015 herself, she has also done a great job, not only working on chasing bears but also breeding and creating the next generation of bear dogs for the first time in Japan.

On April 29th, we returned to the vets to have the stitches removed...

...and to hear the test results of the tumor that had been removed.
The ominous timing made me anxious that I would lose another canine partner to illness.
But in the end, the result was "benign".
I was so relieved!
I had spent the 10 days until I got the test results, nursing Tama, praying that she would recover and that the results would be benign.
This time, the tumor was found at an early stage, the post-operative wound recovery was good, and the test results were benign, so I feel like everything went well.
Somehow, I feel that Bullet helped Tama.
Thank you, Bullet, for always watching over us.
http://npopicchio.blog95.fc2.com/blog-entry-223.html
And thank you also to all the veterinarians and nurses at the veterinary hospital.

The bears have already woken up from their winter hibernation and are moving. Tama has also recovered and is ready to work on bears at any time.
Our bear dogs will be so busy for about the next six months. We will take good care of them so that they can be active and live as long as possible.

- Junpei Tanaka