Carlota, we never have a dull moment when she is around!!

Carlota, Carlota, we never have a single dull moment when you are part of our lives! Thank you for breaking our routines so intensely!!

I want to be positive and I need to be positive, that Carlota will get over the present scare, but I am still living hours of a certain anxiety.

Last Thursday night, around 6 or 7 PM, Carlota started showing some clear signs that something was wrong with her. She was peeing every hour and as we went into the night, she clearly was uncomfortable, in pain, pacing all over and even growling at herself or looking at me with a certain lost look. She looked for places in the flat she had never been before, like the guest room’s shower place!?!?!?!

Needless to say that I was at the vet early on Friday morning. After examining Carlota, the vet felt a “mass” and of course the word “mass” brings the cancer ghost into action. Boxers are very prone to have cancer.

On my way to the X-Ray machine, I was thinking about this "mass" and came to the conclusion that there were very little chances that it were cancer, as Carlota went through a thorough physical examination by the Angolan vet prior to coming over to Panama. Here in Panama, 1 week after the Angolan physical, she went through another thorough physical by the Panamanian vet and none of these two vets, felt any mass, therefore, we were talking about a mass that was at the most 1 month old. In my non-medical mind, I thought it was difficult to have such a big mass developed in only 1 month!

I called Joel and asked him for some memory help… “Joel would you say Carlota got much worse with her peeing situation after the “fruits” incident?” After some thought, Joel agreed with me! Bingo, I was 99% sure it wasn’t cancer but seeds from nectarines or peaches.

After the x ray, I went back to the vet and told a story that had happened during the week, on Tuesday afternoon. Joel and I had a meeting to go at 3 PM. I took Carlota out for a good walk prior to us leaving for the meting. Around 5 PM, I dropped Joel back and went somewhere else. I called him to ask if it was all ok when he got in, only to find an upset husband on the other side of the phone… Carlota, in an act to show how upset she was for not having gone to the meeting too, had brought down the fruit plate and eaten: 2 bananas and 1 of it’s peel (the other peel was on the floor), 2 mandarins with all the small seeds and peels, 2 nectarines and 1 peach and of course, their seeds too!! Oh my Lord, help us here!!

Making a VERY LONG day of x-rays and tests shorter for you all, on Friday, at 9:10 PM, she went into surgery that lasted 3:30 hour. They removed 1 peach seed from her intestine, that not only was blocking the passage of feces, but was looped, stuck to the wall and whatever else!

Carlota is now 11.9 years old, and such a surgery has taken its toll on her. Her temperature went REALLY low after the op, almost to a shock level. This morning her urine was quite smelly but clear and her temperature was a bit higher, not yet ideal, but better. Her enthusiasm is zero and her tiny tail isn’t wagging. She is of course, hospitalized.

But in spite of the above picture, I’m positive and sure she will defeat these health obstacles and give us many more fun moments here in Panama! Come on Carlotinha, you can make it, please please!!