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Ok. Are you ready? We weren't. But, here we go. Caution. This post has some DISGUSTING STUFF in it. To catch up a random person reading this, Bunsen, our beloved Bernese Mountain Dog presented symptoms of bloat on August 15th. Bloat is DEADLY and we rushed him to emerg. The initial triage confirmed our fears and Bunsen was prepped for emergency surgery. Then things started to not add up. Bunsen's stomach wasn't full of gas. His lactate levels were fine. Then on ultrasound a mass was found that dumbfounded the surgical team. The surgeon called us and said what we have found is "extraordinary". Bunsen had a massive fluid filled sack and that the surgical team would have to go in with little information and attempt to cut it out the next day. We visited Bunsen on August 15th and told him we loved him and that he was the bestest boy. We were also told that this surgery is very risky and he may die. I hugged him and told him that it wasn't his time. I whispered in his ear that a coyotes, badgers, porcupines and deadly cold didn't kill him - he would survive this. Little did I know how ironic that statement would be. By the grace of the universe, prayers, luck, love from around the world and the amazing vet team led by Dr. Keyes, Bunsen survived. They found a MASSIVE growth unlike anything they had seen before. It was enormous. 10cm by 20cm (4 inches by 8inches) and almost 10 pounds. It was attached to his liver and his aorta, living off his life processes. So Bunsen recovered and we have been waiting for what the THING was. Was it cancer? Was it benign? Was it deadly? What is alien? We waited and waited for results that didn't come in. Turns out there is a very good reason. This may be one of the only cases in Alberta, or all of Western Canada. To put it bluntly, it is a tapeworm cyst. Specifically, Echniococcus. Now here is where things get wild. In this parasite, wolves and coyotes are the definitive carrier and mice are the intermediate. Mice grow cysts, coyotes each the mice, the cyst becomes an adult tapeworm, the coyote poops out eggs, mice eats the egg and the lifecycle continues. In this story, somehow, unbelievably, Bunsen became the mouse in the above life cycle. Hiding deep within the massive cyst pulled out of Bunsen is a prototape worm. Dogs can get this tapeworm, but they become the definitive carrier, through one in a million circumstances, Bunsen grew a 10 pound cyst like a mouse would in his abdomen. The University of Alberta Vet research team was STUNNED when they found this out after test after test trying to figure out what the thing was came back negative. So what does this mean? The cyst is removed from Bunsen. He's now totally fine. We will screen him in a couple months with a full body CT scan to make sure there aren't any other cysts growing. But here is where things get nasty. This parasite is zoonotic. This means that if Bunsen was also a definitive carrier, Beaker and Bernoulli could also have it. So could I. So could Kris. So could Adam. We have to get Bunsen's feces checked for this rare tapeworm egg and if he has it, check Beaker and Bernoulli and put them on anti parasite medications. AND we all then have to go for a blood test because WE might have it. It would be rare, but we could have cysts slowly growing inside us - in our lungs or liver (that's where it lives in humans). Dr. Keys said that chances of all of the above happening is VERY LOW but then, Bunsen had a 10 pound tapeworm cyst nobody had seen before. We thanked him today for saving Bunsen's life. He said - "I didn't do anything special." I told him he did. He is a hero. His our hero. I said there literally hundreds of thousands of people across the world who think he is a hero. He gave us more time with Bunsen, who he thinks, will likely go on to live a totally full and normal life. But we may all have cysts and tapeworm inside us. Win some, lose some. PHEW! Ok, if you have questions, ask away!