Randi is a male calico oranda. In December, 2008 I noticed a bump on his right side.

Given the lump was getting larger, on December 21st, Ronit Lavie, DVM, at Conejo Valley Veterinary Clinic in Thousand Oaks, CA. took and tissue sample from the lump and sent it for histopathology and it was identified as squamous cell carcinoma. According to his Dr. Lavie and the histopathology lab, the prognosis is good if it's removed, so, surgery was scheduled for January 19th.

Here is Randi in the finquel bath being sedated for surgery.

The carcinoma is the dark red/gray area above the finger and to the left of the tweezers.

A larger look.

Drs. Thompson and Lavie doing the surgery. Dr. Lavie, Randi's vet, did the anesthesia throughout. Dr. Thompson, the clinic's head surgeon, removed the carcinoma. Randi was definitely in good hands.

This is probably my favorite pic second to the one of him coming out of anesthesia. Here he is with the gavage tube in his mouth and that Dr. Lavie used to keep fluid running through his gills. It just cracks me up. She gave the tube to me as a keepsake.

Carcinoma completely removed. They did try to close it up with suture, but the skin was too tight, so they left it open to granulate and close on its own.

A larger look.

Dr. Lavie bringing him out of anesthesia with oxygen and fresh water from home.

Dr. Lavie with her fully awake patient.

Here is Randi sitting in his tub of fresh water wondering what just happened to him. You can see the dilated blood vessles in his tail fin which indicate he is stressed. Thankfully all went well so it is just a memory now.

Here are a couple of videos of Randi after we got home. He was in salted QT for about 6 hours before I transferred him to the 86G, and he will remain salted to 0.1% for about one week. He seems really happy to be back home, and is up to his old self protecting his stoop (driftwood with anubias). Video 1 Video 2

Here is Randi's Story on the GAB forum.

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