So two weeks ago this 90 pound Lab/Dane mix came in that was a regular client, so we saw her and her sibling often enough to know that they take really good care of her, and care about her well being. She has always been a little on the hefty side, great appetite, sweet as sugar. Suddenly she stops eating, just seems off, and was starting to cough occasionally. We ran blood work, and did x-rays. Well, the x-rays showed up as one big blur of white. Which meant that our technique was off, or there was something reeeeally bad in that picture. We shot the xray again, same thing. Unable to determine what was wrong with the picture we recommended she come back the next day which was a Tuesday to get an ultrasound done. Our radiologist comes in, does his thing, and was only able to only tell us that part of the liver was normal, and part of the spleen was normal, the rest was just one huge mess. So after relaying this (in not so harsh words) to the owner, they decided to do exploratory surgery to see what the heck was going on. Well, this is where it gets nasty....and if you have a weak stomach please don't throw up on your keyboard. So for those of you who aren't so inclined, i'll just let you know that the doctor found a 15 pound tumor in this dogs abdomen. It was the most outrageous thing i've ever seen in my life come out of a dog. Here is a picture:
As you can see it is a foot across and was probably 8 inches wide. It had maybe 2 inches of normal spleen poking out of the grossness. The dog did great under anesthesia and was a little sore afterwards (obviously) but did well. She looked average weight when the thing was removed, which makes me wonder how long the thing had been growing and she wasn't showing any symptoms and the people that saw her regularly only assumed it was weight gain from eating so much. Makes me wonder!
So....That is the first story. The second story which happened a week after the last one (as in 2 days ago) is the poster child on why you should spay and neuter your pets. So people, if you've heard all these wives tails about why you shouldn't spay or neuter your pet, or just want to let your dog have a litter, or want to make a buck in selling the litter. Please don't get a dog. I'm sorry to be blunt, but just don't even think about it. I've seen it once, i've seen it a hundred times, there are some IGNORANT people in this world. Our next "Terrible Tuesday" case was a 9 pound poodle. We hadn't seen this client in over 3 years, overdue on every vaccine possible, NOT spayed, and she was 10 years old, suddenly she wasn't 'doin' right'. We took bets on what was wrong with her being that she wasn't spayed, and I won with the correct guess of Mammary cancer. The other guess was pyometra (puss filled uterus). Poor dog. Stupid owners. I wanted to punch them both in the mouth followed by a swift kick in the husbands crotch. This dog was a MESS. She has matted fur all over her, something black and hard in her ear that I don't even know what was going on with that, puss filled teeth that were basically rotting out of her head, and a belly full of mammary tumors (atleast 5). The owners only could feel the really huge one because it was the only one that could be felt over her matted belly, apparently it had been there for about a month, these people, gosh, lets hope they don't have human children. Short story: we removed the tumors and began to spay her only to find pyometra, all of which could have been avoided had she been spayed when she was 5-6 months old, and the uterine wall had ruptured causing all that puss to leak out everywhere. Not good. The doctor cleaned up the train wreck as much as medically possible, but still, who knows how long this dog suffered. These people also knew that the dogs teeth were rotting out of her head, but still chose not to clean her teeth due to not having the funds. Sure I understand that you might not have money to do those things on account of having to drop a chunk of dough on the other 2 things that you did to your dog...but come on people, if you can't afford to take care of your 4 legged children, then don't get one. Please? Spare us all your sob stories. I am sorry I get really heartless when it comes to people who selfishly aquire pets who can't take care of them, and just think these people had 4 other dogs. It crossed my mind about taking the dog outback and stowing it away in my car away from these ignorant people. Austin would enjoy a little playmate. So anyway, all that to say, that she did get her teeth cleaned. For Free. Because we felt sorry for her. She needed about 4 teeth pulled because they were all so loose, but since it was free, and this poor dog had been through enough already, we left them in. We just cleaned up her mouth to get rid of most of the infection. I ended up plucking one of her K9's out with my index finger and thumb, along with another incisor that were so rotten, had I continued to clean the plaque off of them they would have fallen out anyway. We also shaved off all her matts. She wouldn't have one a beauty contest, but atleast she left our clinic feeling like a brand new woman. On drugs. (for pain). Again the picture isn't for the squeamish. Here is her pyometra:
Those buldges at that size should have been puppies. The uterus should only have been the width of maybe an inch at her age, but instead were atleast 6. Filled with puss. So let this be a lesson to anyone you know that intends not to spay/neuter their pet. Sorry if I sound a little preachy, but this all could have been avoided. Males also get cancer from not being neutered, mainly testicular and prostate cancer.
Hopefully these terrible Tuesdays won't be a trend, for the animals sake!
SPAY AND NEUTER! And while i'm at it, ADOPT, don't breed!
Thanks and have a good day. :)
1 comment:
So I was looking through my blog roll and was saw the little pictures and said wow that looks interesting. Blah I should have just kept on going. That thing is HUGE. All in a days work.
Post a Comment