Straydog UPDATE posted TUESDAY 7/8/03 at ~8:00 p.m. CT

Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

TUESDAY JULY 8 2003

More vet visit news as reported by Shannon:

Anthony:

     The swelling on Anthony's bottom gum is probably more than an injury due to fence wars with Buffy. During Anthony's dental procedures (his teeth were pretty healthy for his age) Dr. Morton removed some of the tissue to do a biopsy. As soon as he cut away, the bone behind the tumor collapsed. It's not a good sign when the bone is affected. Dr. Morton showed me the x-rays, and all of the bones in the area of the swelling look to be affected. Although he was just sending off the biopsy to a lab today, Dr. Morton wanted to prepare us for the worst case scenario, which would be an osteo sarcoma (a malignant bone tumor). If that is the diagnosis, Anthony may have to have a portion of his jaw removed. Let's hope that's not the case.

     Anthony was sure glad to get back home to his kennel mate, Susie, and their nice big kennel.

Buffy:

     Buffy probably has Lupus or some other auto-immune disease which is causing his skin infections. His blood tests will be back this evening, so we will know more tomorrow. Buffy also had a dental procedure (see yesterday's update). His tooth where the pulp was showing was still a good, strong tooth, so Dr. Morton gave Buffy a doggie root canal. Poor Buffy! They also shaved a large part of Buffy to keep his long hair from irritating his skin, and none of the other dogs recognized him when he back, including his two kennel mates--his sister, Fluffy, and their friend and companion, Muffy.

Bobby:

     Yesterday the leg Bobby had surgery on (see the Friday, June 27 update) was swollen, and Bobby was fussing more than usual. This morning the swelling was worse, and finally the incision began draining. After returning from our vet after picking up Buffy and Anthony (and stopping off at the pharmacy for Julie's insulin and Big Boy's seizure medication), I rushed Bobby back to the Dallas Surgical Center, an hour and a half drive one way. Dr. Gill examined Bobby, who had a low grade fever, and the vet determined Bobby's leg was infected. Dr. MacDonald (the surgeon who had performed the operation on Bobby) decided to keep Bobby there for a couple of days. They are going to give him intravenous antibiotics (the oral antibiotics he's been on didn't seem to work well enough and made Bobby sick). They will also culture his wound and give him hydrotherapy three to four times a day. Bobby should be ready to come back home on Thursday. We were very happy we aren't going to be charged for these further complications and procedures.