LAST week I wrote about Plum, a much loved labrador belonging to great friends of mine. Plum had developed a skin growth called a mast cell tumour and was due to have this growth removed.

However, Plum had gone off her food and become increasingly unwell in the run up to the operation, leaving her owners wondering whether it was fair to go ahead with the surgery.

I had Plum into the surgery for some basic tests before deciding whether to go ahead and operate or not.

We took blood samples and X-rays and discovered that she was showing signs of significant liver damage. Her owners were worried that this was all related to the cancerous growth.

However, initial tests did not show that the liver problems related to the skin growth so we treated Plum with dietary changes and specific medication for liver disease. To our great relief Plum improved significantly on medication.

We monitored her liver and operated to remove the mast cell tumour. Plum has made a good recovery. Her liver is not yet fully back to normal and we are continuing to monitor it with blood sampling, but the cancer was completely removed.

The moral of Plum’s story is that the diagnosis of a cancer does not always mean everything is going wrong.