Pupdate
Just wanted to give an update on our boy T-Bone. As you may recall from an earlier post (here), the vet found a mass in his ear canal back in January. We decided to take him to UGA so they could check it out and give us a better idea of what it might be and what we needed to do about it.
So, he and I ventured over to Athens, GA (about 2 hours away) for his appointment on March 1st to meet with their surgical team. We arrived, and of course T-Bone knew instantly that he didn't want to be there. So, he came to a dead stop once we walked in the front door. I got us checked in and then had to carry him all the way down the hall to the waiting area! We met with some doctors and discussed the mass and how it was first noticed recently and that he didn't seem bothered by it.
They took him back to check his vitals and do some initial looking. However, he didn't feel like cooperating so they weren't able to get a good look in his ear. But they did end up sending him over to Dermatology since his skin was looking a bit irritated (nose roll, feet, etc).
We left that appointment with lots of instructions. A medicated bath once a week, ear cleaner once a week, daily ear drops, and daily prednisone tablets. AND that was all without seeing what the mass was. They did advise that they wanted us to come back in 2 weeks to follow up and at that time they would look more at the ear and hope it would be less irritated with the medication.
So, catch-up to yesterday when we had his follow up appointment...
Thankfully his skin does seem to be on the mend and less irritated. He is licking his paws less and seems to be a much happier boy. Which is great! However, he despises the ear drops. Its quite the task each night to put them in...thankfully Will has been home to assist me. (I lucked out and was out of town for a while so Will had to fend for himself!)
They took him back to look in his ear and decided they needed to give him some sedation as he was getting annoyed with them (never tried to bite - what a good boy!!). They were able to see it in all its blue glory, just sitting there blocking the canal. It was so big that their scope/camera was not able to get around it. They looked in the other ear while they had him out and nothing funny growing in there, but there is scar tissue from his untreated ear infections prior to getting rescued :(
They did not do a biopsy because it was very vascular and the doctor said it would just bleed a lot. Plus no matter what it is (cancer or not), it needs to be removed. So, we are getting sent back to the surgical people to have them remove it.
Oye vey! I asked if they could give us a consult to go over the plan of attack (since we were already there), but they were not available. Dang it! So, we will be going back on the 27th for that.
Based on the Dermatologist's viewpoint, they will probably want to give him a CT scan so they can see how the ear looks beyond the mass. If it doesn't look good, then they will most likely do a total ear ablation (take out all of the ear), but if it looks OK then they may just cut out the mass itself.
We won't know more until the 27th...so stay tuned and send some happy thoughts to my boy!!
So, he and I ventured over to Athens, GA (about 2 hours away) for his appointment on March 1st to meet with their surgical team. We arrived, and of course T-Bone knew instantly that he didn't want to be there. So, he came to a dead stop once we walked in the front door. I got us checked in and then had to carry him all the way down the hall to the waiting area! We met with some doctors and discussed the mass and how it was first noticed recently and that he didn't seem bothered by it.
They took him back to check his vitals and do some initial looking. However, he didn't feel like cooperating so they weren't able to get a good look in his ear. But they did end up sending him over to Dermatology since his skin was looking a bit irritated (nose roll, feet, etc).
We left that appointment with lots of instructions. A medicated bath once a week, ear cleaner once a week, daily ear drops, and daily prednisone tablets. AND that was all without seeing what the mass was. They did advise that they wanted us to come back in 2 weeks to follow up and at that time they would look more at the ear and hope it would be less irritated with the medication.
 |
| He still gave me kisses after being poked and prodded for a couple hours. |
Thankfully his skin does seem to be on the mend and less irritated. He is licking his paws less and seems to be a much happier boy. Which is great! However, he despises the ear drops. Its quite the task each night to put them in...thankfully Will has been home to assist me. (I lucked out and was out of town for a while so Will had to fend for himself!)
They took him back to look in his ear and decided they needed to give him some sedation as he was getting annoyed with them (never tried to bite - what a good boy!!). They were able to see it in all its blue glory, just sitting there blocking the canal. It was so big that their scope/camera was not able to get around it. They looked in the other ear while they had him out and nothing funny growing in there, but there is scar tissue from his untreated ear infections prior to getting rescued :(
They did not do a biopsy because it was very vascular and the doctor said it would just bleed a lot. Plus no matter what it is (cancer or not), it needs to be removed. So, we are getting sent back to the surgical people to have them remove it.
Oye vey! I asked if they could give us a consult to go over the plan of attack (since we were already there), but they were not available. Dang it! So, we will be going back on the 27th for that.
Based on the Dermatologist's viewpoint, they will probably want to give him a CT scan so they can see how the ear looks beyond the mass. If it doesn't look good, then they will most likely do a total ear ablation (take out all of the ear), but if it looks OK then they may just cut out the mass itself.
We won't know more until the 27th...so stay tuned and send some happy thoughts to my boy!!
 |
| Being a good boy! |
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