The dog's alright!

Over the summer, we noticed that our "first born" had a small black lump on his muzzle that was never there before. In about six weeks it had doubled in size and T started getting really worried. She had been saying for some time that his breath was getting worse, and some late night panic fueled online research brought it to our attention that his breed (Boston Terrier) and his age (7 years old) put him in a group more likely than average to suffer from melanomas. Evidently these can often grow in the mouth and we (mostly T) became very, very concerned.

A visit to the vet lessened our cancer worries, but revealed that he had a broken canine and would need surgery to extract it before it became infected. Since he would be getting surgery anyway, we all decided it was best to remove the growth (which was steadily growing) and it was up to us if we wanted it biopsied or just have it stored for biopsy later if he started having other symptoms of concern. For us there really was no reason to wait on the biopsy, peace of mind was well worth it and on the off chance that it was something serious we would want to know so treatment could be started as early as possible.

We had to wait about a month for the surgery, which while not ideal did make us feel more secure in the capabilities of our vet that he is in such high demand. In the meantime the lump continued to grow and look ever more ominous.

The surgery was this past Wednesday (on Nana's birthday) and by all accounts it went very well. But not without some surprises. Turns out he didn't break his canine as the vet originally thought. Once Rhys was sedated and the vet could get a better look inside his mouth, he found that there was a polyp growing on his gums (apparently this is not abnormal for a middle aged dog) which was big enough to push the canine back into the two neighboring teeth. So the polyp has been removed and now those three teeth should be right as rain. The bad smell was actually coming from one of his very back teeth which had died and needed extracted.

Today we got the biopsy back on the suspicious lump that started it all. It was a benign plasmacytoma and the recommended treatment was to remove the entire tumor; which is what we already did, so he should be just fine. He is on antibiotics for the possible infection of the dead tooth and he goes back in to the vet in ten days for suture removal.

After all this, we're really very grateful for that scary lump. Because without it we would not have known about the problems in his mouth and we really could have lost him. And who knows how much pain and discomfort he has been in without us even knowing. We most certainly have taken his health for granted, but from now on we will be making him more of a priority (as he so rightly deserves), and he'll be seeing the vet at least once a year for a well dog check.