Bunsen's Miraculous Surgery

and thank you for your love and kindness

This will be a bit of a different type of newsletter as the events of the last four days have been nothing short of shocking, unbelievable, heartbreaking, devastating, and elating.

Kris and I spoke about Bunsen’s life saving surgery in Pet Chat, and if you missed it, here is the retelling in as much detail as possible to answer your many questions.

I will warn everyone, that I’ll be talking about puke and surgery so if this isn’t something you want to read, I don’t blame you.

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Thursday morning both Kris and I went to the gym to workout - we travelled separately as she had somewhere to go before and she left later than me. After my workout I checked my phone and I noticed that Kris had texted me that Bunsen had thrown up a couple times before she left. This was a bit concerning, but honestly, Bunsen has thrown up before throughout his life and is known to have a sensitive stomach. I figured it was something he ate or many he wasn’t feeling well and that his puking would be a two-off.

When I arrived home I knew something was horribly wrong.

Beaker was visibly stressed, pacing around Bunsen and looking at him, and another large puke was on the floor. Bunsen was thirsty and crying for water which I gave him and within minutes he threw that up - luckily I got him outside.

He also was REALLY uncomfortable and I felt his belly and it felt swollen.

I gave him 10 more minutes, he drank more water and threw it up immediately and again was super uncomfortable. I was googling symptoms of bloat and Bunsen was checking off four of the main five symptoms.

If you have a large chested dog, please familiarize yourself with the symptoms of bloat:

• A swollen, hard belly

• Retching but not able to vomit

• Drooling

• Pain in the abdomen when touched

• Other signs of distress such as panting and restlessness

I felt the only one Bunsen didn’t have fully was drooling. I called Kris to see where she was (she had our mini-van), she was moments from getting back and I said that when she pulled in we needed to take Bunsen to the vet emergency immediately.

Bloat will kill your dog quickly, and even with treatment has between a 20-40% death rate.

Bunsen was still good enough to hop into the van and we drove to Cedarwood Vet Hospital. Kris called on the way to tell them we were coming and when we arrived, they whisked him into the back for triage and took us to a room.

In 5 minutes a vet came told us that they also suspected he has bloat and that we needed to move forward with three things - X-rays and Ultrasound, a Lactate test and prepping Bunsen for emergency surgery.

It was shocking, but we said yes, of course save his life.

The scan showed a very swollen and dangerously bloated stomach.

At this point things started to not make sense for the vet team.

Dr. Keys, an experienced surgeon, was called onto the case and as the vet techs ran the lactate test and scanned Bunsen things didn’t add up.

Bunsen’s lactate levels were fine, elevated levels were a warning that Bunsen’s stomach had twisted - the deadly part of bloat. Bunsen’s levels were totally fine. His stomach was not twisted.

So instead of surgery, they were going to put a tube into his stomach and suck out the fluid and gas that would have been there- relieving the bloat.

We were sent home at this point as they needed to monitor Bunsen over night to make sure that his stomach returned to a normal size/didn’t flip and then we would talk about surgery in the morning to tack his stomach.

HOWEVER, there wasn’t any gas and his fluid levels were normal BUT the tube was blocked from getting into his intestinal track. It was then the vet team made a startling and shocking revelation.

What they THOUGHT was his stomach on the X-rays and Ultrasound was a massive growth, with a wall, tissue, and fluid.

Dr. Keys called us and told us that he was stunned. He explained what they think they found and his words was “extraordinary”. It was suggested that in the morning, when Dr. Keys was fresh and had a fresh surgical team of the most experienced techs they would do exploratory surgery and attempt to dissect the growth.

Dr. Keys said they were going in blind and that he couldn’t give me anything more than they would do everything in their power to give Bunsen the best outcome the next day. It was suggested that we visit Bunsen that night as it may be the last time we see him alive if he died in the operation.

Of course we all went in.

We had tears and hugs and words of encouragement for Bunsen. Bunsen was happy to see us but clearly in pain and uncomfortable.

We said our goodbyes, which were hard, but we knew he needed his rest and he wouldn’t sleep with us there.

Excuse my language coming up:

I told Bunsen that there was no way he was going to fucking die from this. He fought off a coyote, survived a porcupine, and crazy winters, saved Beaker, and Bailey. I told him I loved him and that he was the strongest, bravest best dog in the world. I said this isn’t goodbye, this is I’ll see you tomorrow

.It was a long night. It was a longer morning.

We got a call that an emergency walk in happened that required the surgical team and because Bunsen was stable they were pushing him to 1 P.M.

Time ticked closer to 1 and the hospital called to go over the three scenarios.

1. They are able to remove the mass, or most of it. It will be biopsied to determine what it is.

2. They will not be able to remove the mass, and it will be biopsied to determine what it is so perhaps Bunsen could have a treatment to shrink the mass.

3. Bunsen dies in surgery.

Generally when things go south they go south quickly so the vet tech said no news is good news - it means they are working hard to dissect the growth.

I said thank you and that we understood.

1 p.m. hit. No call. 1:30 hit. No call. 2 p.m. hit. No call.

We all started to have more hope than despair. 3 p.m. Dr. Keys called.

His first words were: “Hello this is Dr. Keys. We successfully dissected everything. Bunsen is safely in recovery.”

We all cheered. Ok that’s an understatement. The tension held in my stomach dropped like I was in a rollercoster.

The Doc then explained that a second mass was found behind the first, and that mass was also removed. The big mass was larger than they thought and it was unlike anything they had ever seen before. It was 20cm long and 10-15cm wide. Volleyball sized. It had a blood supply from Bunsen which hooked into his liver and on his aorta. We were sent photos of it, and I posted the photo in our Paw Pack Community. Wild stuff, it looks like something from alien.

Pieces of the masses were sent to biopsy and the big one was sent to the University of Calgary for study. It as a one of a kind event. Dr. Keys wasn’t worried about the big mass, but he was more worried about what the smaller mass might be - but he did say he was optimistic that Bunsen would make a full recovery. In Bunsen’s favour was his strength, health, and size. A weaker, older dog may not have made it.

We couldn’t thank Dr. Keys enough and then later that night we got to see our boy.

Dr Keys

We all cried for him and told him we loved him and he was our big strong hero.

Yesterday we brought him home and he has been resting comfortably recovering.

There will be questions to answer from the result of his biopsy, but for now, Bunsen is alive, and so much more comfortable than he was that horrible Thursday morning.

Throughout this ordeal I posted a few times to social media and our whole family was overwhelmed by the support given to us. We saw thousands of your messages of hope, thoughts, prayers, and love. It REALLY made a difference. So many people care about him that he was trending #1 in Canada on Twitter for the whole day.

The surgical team saved our dog’s life. It wasn’t Bunsen’s time.

I felt that whatever grace there was extra in the universe, Bunsen deserved a tiny amount of it for the amazing things he has done as a dog.

Maybe Kahlan was watching over him, lending him strength from the rainbow bridge along with thousands of other dogs.

Maybe it was St. Roch - patron saint of Dogs - who is celebrated on the 16th of August the day of Bunsen’s surgery.

Maybe it just was the skill of Dr. Keys, a highly respected surgeon.

Maybe it was the universe nudging a little extra luck into a fuzzy bear dog.

Maybe it was everything.

In the end, Bunsen is sleeping on our floor, snoring softly and we have been given more time with him.

Time isn’t something you can get back.

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We got tons of messages about if we needed financial through a go-fund-me help for Bunsen’s medical expenses and to start I have to thank everyone who reached out or thought of this.

We do not and we are blessed to be able to cover his bills.

If you would like to help us further we have a few ideas

1. Just by listening to our podcast, The Science Pawdcast, you help us…and it’s free!

2. We have a store with stuffies in it and we are in the middle of our 2025 Calendar Presale. Those purchases help us out.

3. You could join our Paw Pack - our paid community which is like our patreon.

4. Please feel free to donate to a local shelter or pet relief effort to help another family who maybe cannot afford their vet bills.

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At this point I’ll wrap up the newsletter thanking everyone again who reached out, commented, or thought of us.

Kris said at one point; “I don’t want to live without my puppy-puppy,” and thanks to whatever grace there is, or whatever you hold in your heart, we didn’t have to learn how.

Be well, hug and kiss your pets.

Talk next week.