PDSA vets save dog with ‘football-sized’ tumour
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A 3kg tumour the size of a football was removed from a small dog after her owner made a vet appointment thinking her pooch had put on weight and needed to go on a diet.
PDSA Vet Surgeon Laura Cartlidge, who operated on Staffordshire Bull Terrier Brunetta – Netta for short – said: “Netta’s owner was concerned she was putting on weight, but when we examined her we could feel an unusual mass, so we did some more tests, including an ultrasound, and discovered a large splenic tumour. Emergency surgery was the only option, though at fifteen-years-old, it was high risk.”
 Netta was admitted and the complex surgery took place the same day at Stoke PDSA Pet Hospital.
“When I started to remove the tumour everyone was shocked at just how large it was. It was the size of a small football, was 30cm in diameter and weighed over 3kg, it was one of the biggest tumours I’ve ever seen” continued Laura. “Netta is only a small dog, it was eye watering to see how huge it was.”
Worried owner Angela Ravenscroft (47) had noticed Netta was looking larger around the middle. She’d been sick overnight and seemed distressed. Angela said: “I took her along to PDSA thinking that we’d get some advice on how to put her on a diet. I was really shocked when they said it was a tumour on her spleen. Suddenly I thought I might lose her, it was awful.”
“When I got the call to say the surgery was a success and Netta was recovering quickly, it was such a huge relief. I’ve had Netta since she was eight-weeks-old and we’ve been through a lot together. I’m so grateful to PDSA for their help in giving us more time together, she means the world to me.”
Netta is just one of the nine thousand pet patients seen by the dedicated Stoke PDSA vet team every year. The Stoke PDSA Pet Hospital and the associated branch in Newcastle-Under-Lyme are funded entirely by generous public support, and can see as many as 160 pets every day. They provide more than 61,000 treatments a year, costing around £1m. Nationwide PDSA has a total of 51 Pet Hospitals which see over 5,000 pets a day – that’s 13 pets every minute!
PDSA believes that every pet deserves a happy, healthy life, and that no animal should suffer unnecessarily. For more information on PDSA, and how people can support their vital work, visit www.pdsa.org.uk
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