Honestly I don’t even know where to begin with our experience at BVRS. We had an initial referral appointment because our giant baby Floki (aka Squish Squish - a giant Dogue de bordeaux) had very quickly developed a massive oral tumor. Please understand Floki is our baby, so hearing the word 'cancer' put us in immediate shock. Everything became surreal. We couldn’t stop crying, I was even crying in my sleep.

 

Lucky though, our vet managed to get us an urgent appointment with BVRS the following morning. Given the size and aggression of the cancer, we didn’t really hold hope…until we met Fiona and her team at BVRS. Even though our heads were overloaded with information and our emotional state wasn’t great, one of the first things I noticed, was how patient and compassionate everyone was with us. They remained calm and explained things in a way we could understand. They took their time, patiently answered all our questions…even if we asked the same questions several times, in our distress. We were told that we could potentially save our boy but we would have to attack the tumor very aggressively. We were terrified of losing our baby but we saw fight in his eyes and the BVRS team were cautiously optimistic.

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We all decided to go for it! Floki went in for surgery which required ¾ of his lower jaw removed, 3 lymph nodes removed and 2 salivary glands removed. The surgery was massive! I can only imaging how exhausted the BVRS team must have been afterwards. It was an anxious wait but the follow up tests confirmed he was cancer free & there was no spread!

 

I’ll never forget the moment that Fiona opened the door and we saw Floki for the first time after his surgery. He ran straight into our arms and wiggled his entire body. We cried and smiled and gave him lots of cuddles.

 

The BVRS team had kept us together. They were our rock. We had complete trust in them.

 

Today he is his old happy self again and pain free. He loves going for his vet visits as the BVRS staff smooch on him a lot and he is a floozy so he loves every minute of it. Floki has now been cancer free for 5 months! He is doing preventative chemo but all signs are very positive including all his blood works coming back each time perfect.

 

At a time where our world was falling apart, we found the most beautiful angels at BVRS. There is nothing in this world that we can do to show our gratitude but please know that we love all you guys and thank you for everything you have done for our family! We cannot say how much we appreciate you!