Trailblazer Tamaskan

05/08/2024

*Last of the Natural Disasters Litter Updates*

Buccleuch Tsunami - Pink Collar Female
🩷 1 Year Update 🩷
Weight: 61lbs
Height: ?

Last but certainly not least is Ktaadn!!! She loves to play and live life with her Tamaskan big sister, Akela. She has a very silly personality and is a great cuddler. She gets super excited to greet us whenever we get home and she is a master digger of holes.

04/08/2024

Buccleuch Hurricane - Green Collar Female
💚1 Year Update💚
Weight: 55lbs
Height: 24 inches

Vada!! Vada is quite possibly the sweetest and most easy going dog I have ever had. People love her, dogs love her, everyone loves her!

She loves the beach, hikes, going to work, playing with her 3 pack mates, running errands, chewing marrow bones, digging holes, and most of all, cuddling and snuggling with her human family. She has such a wonderful temperament and we are so hopeful that she will be able to pass on her parents’ fabulous genes to a future tamaskan generation 💚

03/08/2024

Buccleuch Flash Flood - Black Collar Female
🖤1 Year Update🖤
Height: 29 inches
Weight: 50lbs

Freyja is the biggest cuddle bug and loves to be part of anything and everything. She is easily excitable with new experiences and people but, once settled, is a submissive and gentle friend. She's the master sniffer on our walks and would adventure all day if she had her way. When she can't be outside, you can find her watching the outdoors from the upstairs windows, chewing her bone, or pestering her cat siblings. Freyja will overload our laps with toys when she wants to play and prompts us to go to bed once she's decided she's tired. She's a happy, wonderful part of our family and is easily one of the best parts of our home🤍.

02/08/2024

Buccleuch Earthquake - Red Collar Male
❤️ 1 Year Update ❤️
Height: 30 inches
Weight: 95lbs

Maverick literally is the epitome of Tommy Boy in dogs clothing. His tackles life with full exuberance and joy, and loves absolutely every person and every dog he meets. He is just so happy all the time! Next on his list of loves is water ... this boy loves his baby pool, the hose, the horse water trough .. you name it. He also loves boat rides, getting a "doggie crush" (water in a smirnoff bucket) from Harborside in OCMD, and running on the sandbar. At home on our farm he loves to chase and play with the donkeys and they in turn chase him right back. He's just a big goofball! We absolutely adore him!

01/08/2024

Buccleuch Sandstorm - Yellow Collar Female
💛1 Year Update💛
Weight: 65lbs
Height: 25 inches

This is Bella. She loves going for walks meeting her neighbor friends but does need to "curb her enthusiasm" when greeting them. Loves running like a wild woman chasing balls and going to the pet stores to pick out a special treat. Her best trick is tip toeing into the bathroom so we don't hear her and grabbing the toilet paper and running through the house with it. The best part of my day is waking up every morning with a cold wet nose on my nose and kisses on my face.

31/07/2024

Buccleuch Volcano - Orange Collar Male
🧡1 Year Update🧡
Weight: 80lbs
Height: 29 inches

He is the sweetest boy ever, there isn’t a mean bone in his body. He LOVES other dogs and especially loves his big sister kitty. He is so gentle and calm when small children are around, but also very protective of them. When he went to the beach with our friends young kids he wouldn’t let them go in the ocean without being by their side. He is also a roadtrip champion! And loves long car rides to new adventures with mom and dad.

We love Bodhi more than anything in the world. He is an Angel. He makes us laugh SO MUCH because he is a goofy, silly 80lb puppy still. He loves adventuring outside and swimming in rivers. Snow makes him go crazy and he’s got an energy and enthusiasm for life just like Kris has! Everyone tells us they even look alike. He has completed our wolf pack and we love the bond we have formed with him over the last year!! He is FAMILY.

30/07/2024

Buccleuch Tornado - Grey Collar Male
🩶 1 Year Update 🩶
Weight: 71 lbs
Height: 27 in

Kenai is extremely high energy and LOVES playing with other dogs. He also is a huge fan of fishing (aka watching the fish and once even jumped in after one) and loves the boat. We cannot keep him out of the water at our cabin. He swims like a fish!

He has an all or nothing type of personality. It’s either play, play, play, or SLEEP. He does great with our cats and when he is around kids, he is so gentle and curious.

He also loves to smell EVERYTHING. Very scent driven and will sniff out just about anything that can be considered a “treat”.

He cracks us up! He still acts like an oversized puppy and is our best little bud 🖤

29/07/2024

Buccleuch Landslide - Purple Collar Female
💜1 Year Update💜
Height: About 25.5-26 inches
Weight: 65.6lbs

Kelly! Kelly belly, baby girl, little miss, lickitung. If we ever get another puppy, Kelly set the bar high. Her first year has been a relative breeze. While she made it very well known early on that she did not like crates, she made up for it by being able to be left alone out of one since she was about 4 months old. Add on some stays and training with Cassie when we’ve had to be traveling and we’ve gotten ourselves one great little sidekick.

Today, she’s our go with the flow (but needs to be the center of attention) girl. She’s as comfortable off leash in the woods and at the beach as she is walking for miles on leash in the busy streets of New York and DC. And she adjusts with no problem as she flows in between all the different environments we take her to.

We’re excited to take her upstate to Saranac Lake in a couple of weeks and hope we can add swimming to her repertoire.

But best of all is what she’s done for my older dog, Raleigh. She is obsessed with her Raleigh (see photo where she was the one to squeeze herself next to him on his bed) but he’s obsessed with her as well. She’s the only dog I’ve ever seen him really play with and they play daily.

Current Loves: Raleigh, laying on the air conditioning vents throughout the house, her wishbone chew, belly rubs, throwing tennis balls under the couch and spending hours trying to get them back out.

28/07/2024

Buccleuch Typhoon - Blue Collar Male
💙 1 Year Update 💙
Weight: 78.5lbs
Height: 28 inches

My handsome goober… aka Summit 🏔️. He is the goofball of goofballs. He is always smiling and also has the most graceful leaps and hops/jumps I have ever seen in a dog. He legit looks more graceful than a gazelle.

He’s a lanky guy who eats like a bird… picks all day long opposed to eating large meals like we try to do. He loves treats, bones, and steak 🥩 .

He loves to run around the yard chasing Max, chew bones, swimming, and playing fetch. He also enjoys chasing the cats, but he doesn’t phase Comet (the cat), she’s too ‘cool’ to be chased 🤣. He is loved by all who meet him.

27/07/2024

The “Natural Disasters” litter between Wren and Zuko turns 1 year old today! 🥳 I will be sharing each of the puppy’s updates individually over the next week or so! So proud of this litter and how these dogs are growing up! We have some absolute FANTASTIC owners doing a great job!!

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Buccleuch Avalanche - Lime Green Collar Female
💚 1 Year Update 💚
Weight: 71lbs
Height: 26.5 inches

Lyra has a reputation for going from 0 to 100 in just a few seconds. When she meets new people, she starts off shy and cautious. But once she warms up, she transforms in an instant, jumping on them with excitement and showering them with kisses.
At home, one moment she’s napping belly up and doesn’t want to be bothered. The next, she’s doing parkour moves off the couch and hurdling over her older brother, Simba.
On weekends, she enjoys hiking, a passion she shares with Simba. She learned all the essentials from him: sniffing every tree, marking her territory, and biting at the running water when we reach a river or creek. It’s never a dull moment when she’s around!

11/07/2024

We haven’t been super active on here because we are busy preparing for our first baby! The dogs will have a new baby brother at home sometime in the next week most likely! ⁣⁣
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I also have recently joined the Tamaskan Dog Register’s (TDR) Committee of Breeders and have been enjoying learning the ins and outs of the registry policies and assisting our registered breeders. It feels really good to be a part of an organization striving to be the best it can be both for its breeders and the dogs. ⁣⁣
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Here’s a little update on our pack! Everyone is doing well 😊🐾 ⁣⁣
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𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐧: Our Turkey Bird is currently 8 years old and thriving. He loves to swim to stay cool in this hot Summer weather we’ve been having and he is full of attitude and s***k as usual! This dog really is one of a kind and I absolutely adore him and his shenanigans. He has so much personality. ⁣⁣
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𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫: Strider is currently 6 years old and has just been extra affectionate and silly ever since his neuter back in March. He’s such a ham and we really enjoy every day with him now. Unfortunately the procedure has caused him to gain some weight so we are working on trying to trim him back down. 𝘞𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘻𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘮 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩. ⁣⁣
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𝐙𝐮𝐤𝐨: Zuko is currently 4 years old and full of energy! I’m really looking forward to getting back into bikejoring with him once I’m no longer pregnant and when the weather cools down! His first and only litter of pups turn 1 at the end of this month and I am excited to share updates about them! 𝘈𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘡𝘶𝘬𝘰 𝘴𝘰 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘰 𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘮. 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘻𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵, 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘵. ⁣⁣
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𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐚: Senna is 2.5 years old and back to her crazy and extremely energetic self post surgery. She has currently lost about all the fur she possibly can after dealing with a second false pregnancy after her most recent heat cycle. But if there’s a good time to lose your coat it’s definitely during Summer because we have had some crazy heatwaves already! We are not planning to do any follow ups or checks in regards to her cancer and are just enjoying life with her. She is happy and feeling great as far as we can tell! I would like to have her spayed because her heat cycles have been inconsistent her whole life and she does not handle them well but I’m torn on it. For now we just want her to have fun! ⁣⁣
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At this time we are also in the process of sponsoring Strider’s nephew, Togo, to be an approved outcross stud for the Tamaskan breed. He has a few more health tests to go, if he passes everything we will share some pictures and info about him! 🤞🏻⁣⁣
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Even though we ourselves have no breeding plans or puppy plans in the foreseeable future we have many things going on in our personal life to look forward to and we are also very happy and excited for our breeder friends who have upcoming plans as well. Hope everyone is having a great Summer, thanks for following along with us! 😊⁣⁣

09/06/2024

Wishing our big guy the happiest 6th birthday today! 🥳⁣
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🤍🤎 We love you Strider! 🤎🤍

05/06/2024

Our Tamaskan Dogs, Senna and Zuko 🐾

19/05/2024

Their eyes look silly here but Strider and Zuko are happy to report that they passed their OFA CAER yearly eye exam today with flying colors! 🥳

Each dog’s exam form showing “Normal” has been uploaded to their Completed Health Test Photo Albums here on our page for clarity/transparency 😊

*This will be the last time we have Strider’s eyes tested now that he has been neutered. We will repeat this exam for a final time once he turns 8 years old as generally any changes in the eyes past that age are considered to be age related as opposed to a genetic concern. If his semen happens to be used for breeding prior to him turning 8, then we will of course have the test repeated before the mating.

19/05/2024

Zuko - OFA CAER Eye Exam Results - May 19, 2024

19/05/2024

Strider - OFA CAER Eye Exam Results - May 19, 2024

19/05/2024

Right now in the Tamaskan breed we are doing a lot of outcrossing in an effort to remove ourselves further and further from specific health issues that began popping up. Outcrossing often results in litters being born that are not in line with our breed standard in terms of coat/color/type. Essentially these litters might not “look” like a Tamaskan Dog.

Buccleuch Tamaskan’s upcoming litter plans between Wren and Freud will produce Tamaskan puppies that look very much like your expected Tam while still offering a low inbreeding coefficient.

We encourage you to inquire about this litter if you have been seriously thinking that a Tamaskan is the right fit for your family! 🐾

We’re very excited to announce our next litter plans between our two very loved doggos, Wren and Freud! This will be Wren’s second, and final litter. We do not have any further breeding plans beyond this pairing at this time. Applications for this litter are now available! Please email us at [email protected] if interested. Serious inquires only. 🐺💜🐺(📷cred to our good friends )

17/05/2024

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𝘉𝘶𝘤𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘌𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘬𝘦 ❤️ “𝐌𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐤” ❤️ just went back home yesterday after staying with us for awhile while his family enjoyed some time at the beach! 🌊🏖️⁣
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𝐌𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐤 is currently the tallest and biggest puppy from the “𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴” Wren x Zuko litter. The litter will be 10 months old at the end of this month already, can’t believe it! ⁣
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𝐌𝐚𝐯 literally melts my heart. He is just the absolute sweetest boy who loves to snuggle you and give kisses. A true gentle giant! His temperament is fabulous and I love how laid back and naturally calm he is. He loves to go out for a hike or long walk at the start of his days and then would be content to just relax with you for the rest of it. He loves every dog he meets and plays so well with them all! He does have a high prey drive and has already been successful catching a groundhog! 😂⁣
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Very, very, proud of this boy and how much work his family has put into him. He is a great ambassador/example for the 𝘛𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘢𝘯 Breed! 🥰

14/05/2024

✨🩷 Senna Update 🩷✨

Unfortunately we got disappointing news from the histopathology report from the malignant tumor that was surgically removed from Senna on 5/1.

The report states that they believe we are dealing either with some type of Lymphoma or Histiocytic Sarcoma. There are several different kinds of both of these cancers. Our surgical oncologist believes that it is more likely we are dealing with Histiocytic Sarcoma as opposed to Lymphoma.

Even though the entire tumor was removed and sent off for testing at the lab they are still unable to accurately identify exactly what type of cancer it is and would like us to do further testing on it, which requires an additional cost. I am currently waiting for an estimate on what that cost is, however, I am not sure we will pursue it as the main reason for finding out what type of cancer this is is to decide on a course of treatment going forward. We have already decided there will be no further treatment for Senna as we do not believe in doing chemotherapy/radiation for our dogs. The other reason for finding out what exactly it is is so we have an idea of how much time we have left with Senna after doing the surgery. And honestly, I really just want to know what it is because she is so young and this is such a strange case altogether.

Senna had all of her stitches removed this morning but a bandage needed to be replaced on her because the area is very itchy and she is scratching at it with her back foot. Other than some minor irritation she caused from scratching the last couple of days, her recovery is going very well and the area looks good. We should be able to remove the bandage at the beginning of next week and then some light leash walks can resume.

Thanks so much to everyone who has asked about her and kept us in your thoughts! We will enjoy however much time we have left with her to the fullest. She already has much more energy than she did prior to the surgery so I believe she is feeling better. 😊

10/05/2024

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With all the bad news lately in terms of 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐚 being diagnosed with 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳 and now this new regulation being implemented by the CDC, we felt the time was right to share something happy! ⁣
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𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 is a little over 𝟸 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘳 and I have seen 𝐒𝐎 many positive changes in him. I seriously cannot believe it. Both myself and many others thought that because he was older, his behavior would not change much and I am happy to report we underestimated it! For reference, he will turn 𝟼 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘭𝘥 next month. ⁣
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When 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 was under the age of 3 I never really noticed any type of significant hormonal issues with him that changed or affected his behavior in certain situations. However, as he got older and reached maturity it became very clear to me that his hormones caused him stress and he struggled with them greatly at times. ⁣
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Without getting into too much detail (although I’m happy to if anyone is curious) he was what I referred to as a “very gross boy.” 🙈 But most recently around the holidays this past year things just got really out of control and it came on very suddenly. ⁣
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I found out I was pregnant in the beginning of November and very early on 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 began following me all over the house and sitting and laying right next to me wherever I went. This was not normal behavior for him. It turned into separation anxiety and he started marking with urine on specific areas in the house whenever I would leave. I reached out for advice and opinions and a lot of people said he was reacting to my pregnancy and it could be causing him stress. ⁣
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In the beginning of January, 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐚 started a split heat cycle that lasted until the beginning of March which really took a toll on him and he began jumping up onto our tables and counters stealing the cat’s food, our food, and also other dog’s belongings that were here staying with us. It was literally like we had a teenager and I was losing my mind. 😅⁣
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For reference, 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 has been able to be trusted in our home with no supervision and zero issues since the age of 𝟐, so the fact that any of this was happening was extremely confusing and upsetting to me. It was like we could not go one day without having some sort of incident. ⁣
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The final straw was that due to how worked up he was about 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐚 being in heat and even though we had removed her from our house, he had gotten into a fight with 𝐙𝐮𝐤𝐨 while we were not home and injured him. Not badly, but that kind of behavior is not something we tolerate in our house nor is that something that has ever been an issue ever before. We made the decision then to neuter 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 as soon as possible. ⁣
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After the neuter 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 was put in a kennel (Impact Crate) anytime we were not home for a little over a month because of the recent events that had been happening we decided he was unable to be trusted in our home without supervision. It was not fun for him or us as he does not enjoy being crated and drools profusely. ⁣
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Fast forward to now and things have returned to normal. Strider is his usual calm self, there is no separation anxiety between him and myself. He is not trying to steal food. There has been no marking in the house. He is no longer licking the urine of female dogs from the grass outside, he’s not trying to lick female dogs (fixed or intact), and he has stopped pretty much any and all hormonal type of behavior we had been seeing for the past few years. ⁣
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It is literally like night and day. ⁣
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Now he is just sooooo silly. Trying to play with us all the time and all the other dogs. He seems so relaxed and carefree. It’s like I just have my fun loving giant puppy back and it has been the best thing for us and for our pack. He is even trying to initiate play with intact males whereas before he would just be indifferent towards them. I should have done this years ago honestly. 😅 I enjoy him so much more now and it makes me happy that he is no longer stressed. ⁣
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I share this because sometimes living with intact dogs can be very difficult. Both males and females. Things can happen when you least expect it and it can drastically affect your home life. Navigating it can be challenging and deciding how to support your dog and what to do is different for everyone. I am very happy with the choice we made because it was clearly the right choice for our family and more importantly for Strider. I also really struggled and felt like a failure when all this was going on because I just did not understand who this dog was when all these behaviors were going on and why. So I share in case anyone else is dealing with something similar and please know we would always listen and support you! ⁣
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The only negative changes I have seen since the neuter are that his coat does not feel as nice to me and I am also starting to see some weight gain but those two things were something I anticipated happening at some point. ⁣
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All in all our 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 is doing fantastic and we could not be happier! 😊⁣

09/05/2024

Unfortunately we were blindsided yesterday after the CDC announced a new regulation that will go into effect starting August 1, 2024.

The portion of this new rule which drastically impacts us personally, and the Tamaskan breed in general, is the prevention of any dog from entering the United States under the age of 6 months.

As most of you know both Zuko and Senna were imported to the USA from the Netherlands. They both made the journey when they were 10 weeks old. The reason we decided to do this is because the gene pool for the Tamaskan Dog breed in the USA is very limited. One of the driving forces of our breeding program is to promote genetic diversity so bringing in new/additional lines so that both we and other breeders here would have more options was important to us.

Unfortunately, because Senna failed her health testing, this left us without a foundation female dog for our breeding program and meant no breeding plans for our kennel. I had been hoping/planning to import a potential breeding female puppy from the Netherlands again in 2025 or 2026 but now that will not be possible because of this new regulation.

We are honestly incredibly devastated and defeated by this as not only does it impact us greatly but also affects so many other ethical breeders, people who are into dog shows/dog sports, and also legitimate service dog handlers who travel frequently. We really hope the CDC will amend this regulation after such severe backlash from the dog world but unfortunately it does not look so hopeful. 😕

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For those of you who are unsure why this is a big deal….

No breeder should ever be expected to keep/raise a puppy up to the age of 6 months. Nor do most prospective puppy owners want to wait to bring a new puppy into their home at the age of 6 months. Not only would transport at that age be extremely detrimental to the puppy (fear periods) but it would also make it much harder for that older puppy to be accepted by other dogs in an already established pack. Not to mention the new owner is missing critical bonding time with their new dog and has to rely on the breeder to put the time in for training and socialization which also then costs the new owner a lot more money.

Very sad day for the USA and extremely disappointing decision making by people who clearly have not given a lot of thought to just about anything and are trying to use “Rabies” as the excuse for this new regulation when we all know that’s not really the case.

Starting on August 1, all dogs entering the U.S. (including those that left the U.S. and are returning, and regardless of the country they are coming from) must be:
• healthy upon arrival
• at least 6 months of age
• microchipped
• accompanied by a CDC Dog Import Form receipt and required vaccination and veterinary documents.

Additional requirements may apply depending on where the dog has been in the last 6 months and whether or not the dog was vaccinated in the United States.

Use CDC’s Q&A tool (the CDC “DogBot”) to determine what rules apply to your dog: https://bit.ly/2rww2bq

09/05/2024

Wishing the oldest of our pack a very Happy 8th Birthday today!!! 🩵💙 We love you so much Talcon!!!

02/05/2024

She’s on her way home! 🩷✨

Judging by her expression she is feeling much better! 🤪😂 Such a trooper this girl.

01/05/2024

✨POST SURGERY UPDATE ON SENNA ✨

Our baby Senna did great today and no complications occurred during surgery. The doctor called and said she was doing well waking up afterwards and is the “perfect patient.” They said she seems unbothered by anything. 🥰

The surgical oncologist was able to remove the tumor from Senna’s right side but was only able to achieve “narrow” margins. This means she was only able to resect to the tissue right outside of the capsule of the tumor. We were hoping for “wide” margins in terms of resecting tissue 3cm outside of the capsule of the tumor but this was not possible due to the size of the mass. The surgeon also said that it looked like the cancer was starting to spread to the intercostal space between her ribs and she had to dig that tissue out as well. She was glad about the fact she was able to remove the mass as this should make Senna much more comfortable for the immediate future.

So now the tumor will be sent off to the lab and hopefully in 5-7 days we will know what type of cancer Senna has. Having this information is important because it will hopefully tell us what to expect for Senna. Will this cancer be likely to regrow? And if so, in how much time? So now we wait and see.

Senna is having a sleepover at the vet tonight and we should be able to pick her up tomorrow as long as no complications arise.

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Pictures are from a walk we took over the weekend when I went to my “thinking spot” because I was really struggling with all of this. Of all the years that I’ve walked on these railroad tracks I have never seen something blocking the way. As we approached the tree I watched all four of the dogs effortlessly find their own way to get past it. I climbed over it as well and we continued on with our walk.

I couldn’t help but think it was meant to be there to show us that what we are facing with Senna is a big roadblock and we could have let it stop us and choose to not keep going, but instead we made the choice to try to find a way past it. It is funny how nature seems to send you signs at the right time just when you need them.

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We will hope that this surgery is as successful as possible of ridding cancer from Senna’s body 🤞🏻 When we have the results of the testing of the tumor we will post another update but until then we will focus on letting Senna heal and rest when she gets back home. 🩷✨

Thanks so much for all the love!

01/05/2024

Our brave little Senna has been dropped off for her surgery day.

Thank you so much for all the love and well wishes to us from everyone. It means a lot to us.

I will post an update as soon as I get the call from the doctor after the surgery has been completed.

All the love to you Senna 🩷✨

29/04/2024

😔💔

On Tuesday March 12 we were out for a walk and all the dogs were playing. Someone yelped during roughhousing but everything seemed fine so we continued on with our walk without issue. That evening Senna started limping on her front right leg so I kept her home for the rest of the week on light duty. On Saturday March 16 a bump the size of a lacrosse ball appeared out of nowhere on her right side along her ribcage.

When Senna came to me as a puppy she had a bump in the same spot about the same size that the veterinarians said was an injury from playing too rough. The bump was called a seroma and was a collection of blood/fluid under the skin. Essentially like a big bruise. Even though I thought it was strange because it had been over 2 years since this original bump went away, I figured it was the same thing. Maybe just a “weak spot” on Senna that was re-injured from playing too hard. I decided to keep an eye on it but did not make a vet appointment for it. The bump looked and felt the same as it did when she was a puppy. It was bulbous, moveable, and felt like fluid under the skin.

On April 5 I took Senna and Zuko for their annual vet exam. I told our vet about the bump, which had now grown to about the size of a baseball and also felt more firm, and she said we should take a sample from it and send it out to pathology just to be safe. Several blood samples were taken and sent out for evaluation.

On Tuesday April 9 our veterinarian called me with the results of Senna’s cytology. The pathologist said they were 100% positive that Senna’s bump was cancer. But they did not know what kind of cancer it was. They said that this bump and the bump she had as a puppy were different, just happened to be in the same location. Our veterinarian suggested I reach out to a surgical oncologist to schedule a consultation and tell them that Senna’s cytology report came back as Malignant Discrete Cell Neoplasia. We were both completely shocked by these results.

On April 23 we saw a highly recommended surgical oncologist at our specialty vet. She was surprised to see Senna at her age (2.5 years old) and with a mass so large, the mass had now grown to about the size of a softball. She suggested we bring Senna back for a CT scan the next day so that she could see exactly where the tumor was and whether or not it had spread to other parts of her body. We agreed to this.

On April 24 Senna went back to the specialist and received a CT scan of both her thorax and abdomen. The surgical oncologist also took several more blood samples to send out for a second cytology to see whether or not the results showed anything different.

The results of the CT scan showed that the tumor on her right side is very large. The measurements were 12.0cm long, 9.0cm height, and 5.0cm width. The good news was that at the time of the CT scan it showed that the tumor was fully encapsulated and by itself within the subcutaneous tissue. It had not infiltrated any bones or organs or spread to any other parts of the body. This means that Senna’s tumor is a good candidate for surgical removal.

The results of the second cytology report were very similar to what the first report showed but this second report stated that the pathologist believes Senna has a type of cancer called a sarcoma. There are several different types of sarcomas. Unfortunately it is impossible to know exactly what kind of sarcoma we are dealing with unless we take a biopsy or proceed with surgery to remove the entire mass. Taking a biopsy was not recommended.

In the days after receiving these results I have been consulting with two other veterinarians in addition to our surgical oncologist, I have been researching about all the different types of sarcomas, the different grades of tumors, the different margins in terms of the surgical excision of the tumors, success rates of surgically removing sarcomas with/without chemo and/or radiation, life expectancy with/without surgery, recurrence rates of tumor growth post surgery, etc. Websites, medical journals, studies, literally anything and everything I could find…

And it still felt like an impossible decision. One of those, you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenarios.

I at least found some comfort in the fact that all 3 veterinarians said there was no right or wrong answer here. Deciding to proceed with surgery to try to remove the tumor or deciding to let it go and not pursue treatment at all both had their upsides and downsides, we just needed to decide what felt right for us and for Senna.

I decided that I wanted to speak to the surgical oncologist as soon as she was back in the office today regarding her outlook on the procedure and her predictions for what kind of margins she would be able to get. My concern with proceeding with surgery was that because of how large the tumor is, that she would not be able to get the wide margins needed in order to give us the best outcome and still have enough tissue to close the incision.

In my research I found that for the best results it is important that the first procedure is as close to curative as possible, which means removing the entire tumor along with at least 2-3cm of healthy tissue outside of the tumor. This standard is most successful for preventing regrowth of the cancer. This was important to us because we are not planning to do anything more than this one surgery regardless of the outcome and the information we receive afterwards. We do not believe in chemo/radiation for dogs and I am also 29 weeks pregnant and regardless of how “safe” they say it is I would never feel comfortable exposing myself or baby to it. We also will not do another surgery after this, even if the cancer would grow back. So we did not want to move forward with the procedure unless the surgeon felt confident about a favorable outcome based on our situation.

After speaking with her she felt very confident she could get the entire tumor and was going into the surgery with the goal of clean/wide margins. But she could not guarantee it. She said it may wind up being narrow margins instead, meaning less healthy tissue outside the perimeter of the tumor would be able to be resected. She also stated that if we moved forward with the procedure we would also then know all the unknowns we do not know now. We will find out exactly what type of cancer this is and what grade as well. This will give us information to predict what might happen post surgery in terms of the chance of the surgery being curative, potential re-growth of the tumor, and Senna’s life expectancy.

So then my worry became, what if we do this and something goes wrong. What if for some reason we lose Senna during surgery. Or something happens in recovery and the rest of our time together is spent in pain and worry instead of if we chose to do nothing we could at least enjoy the rest of the time we have left with her doing fun things until she tells us she is ready to go. But I realized too that if we let this go we will likely be saying goodbye to Senna sometime in the next month or two which wouldn’t be much different anyway. 😔

Senna goes to battle this Wednesday. We’re going for it. Tomorrow we are going to have a very fun day with a big walk and swim to give her the best we can before her surgery day. If everyone could please send us all of your good vibes, positivity, well wishes, prayers, etc. we would really appreciate it.

A very special thank you to her surgical oncologist and surgery team Metropolitan Veterinary Associates, our veterinarian friends Rachel and Sarah for letting me ask them a million questions about all of this for the last week, and to Senna’s breeder Ellen for supporting us and being here for us every step of the way.

We will update everyone post surgery and once we have more information. 🩷✨