Update

Our regular vet did not have an ultrasound machine, and the person I talked to was kind of a dick about referring me to a clinic that did have one. Ultimately, she was like, “Well, you could call this place or that place but I don’t really know. Good luck!” and I decided that we’d never set foot in that vet’s office again.

We called around and found a vet near our house that could do ultrasounds, but they could not get her in until yesterday afternoon. We went through the whole beach towel sling dog-moving process and took her in.

She’s too fat for the ultrasound to show us anything definitive. In order to get a better ultrasound or to do a biopsy, we’d have to take her to Virginia Tech (excellent veterinary school, for those of you not local) – but it would be an hour trip, and extremely expensive, and ultimately there was no guarantee that it’d give us a better idea of which option to choose – operate, or euthanize. We really want to minimize Belle’s fear and discomfort right now, so we decided not to move her again.

The new vet took blood and ran some tests, but the results again did not give us definitive evidence either way. So we decided to let them do exploratory surgery, which is today – maybe right now, even. They may find that the tumor is confined to her spleen, and that they can remove the tumor and her spleen and she’ll recover nicely. They may find something worse, in which case we’ve decided to let them put her down. I won’t know more until later today.