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  #1  
Old July 30th, 2009, 03:05 PM
defender defender is offline
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worried about thing on/near my dog's lip

It's kind of bulbous, red and angry looking, maybe the size of a large grape and I'm not quite sure if it's his lip or just outside of his lip, like in the crease between lip and chin. It's toward the front of his mouth. He seems to be bahaving normally -- eating like normal, excited about walks and his normal energy level, doesn't get uptight if I look at it. I've touched near it so I could get a better look, but I haven't actually poked at it to see if he gets upset.

I do have a vet appointment to look at it tomorrow afternoon, but I'm worried, and haven't been able to find any info on the web. We noticed it about three hours ago.

eta: In case it matters, he's about ten years old and a mutt. He looks just like a norwegian elkhound, but a little more barrel-shaped.

Jayne, mama to two lovely humans and two lovely dogs
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Old July 30th, 2009, 07:30 PM
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lUvMyLaB<3 lUvMyLaB<3 is offline
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is it a tick?
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Old July 30th, 2009, 09:49 PM
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Hard to tell what it is without seeing it. There are a lot of possibilities...most of them benign in nature, but alarming when you see them.

for the vet visit tomorrow! Hope it turns out to be nothing too serious! Please keep us posted...and a picture or two of your furbabies would be lovely.
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Old July 30th, 2009, 10:29 PM
defender defender is offline
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I'm happy to hear there are some not so bad possibilities. It is definately not a tick. I've seen those more than I'd like to remember and this isn't one. And it doesn't look to me like it could be a bug bite. My guess is it's probably ok. My gut says it came on a little too fast to be my worst fear, and he has plenty of energy and all that. I've been out of the house for 3 or 4 hours now and when I got home dh was out with the pups for a walk, so I'll have to check when they get back. I hope it's gone down some...

I think I was a little taken aback when I saw it because I thought they'd already thrown at me all the surprises they had up their sleeves. Since they are both ten-ish I thought I had seen it all. lol I don't know why I'd feel that way though. About a year ago, I thought he was in big trouble when I woke up in the morning to see that he seemed to not even be able to lift his back end off the floor. It scared me to death, carried him to the car, rushed him to the vet and it turned out it was from the four macademia nuts he ate the night before. D'oh!
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Old July 30th, 2009, 10:48 PM
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They do tend to worry us mere humans, eh?

It could be anything from a bug bite to a papilloma to a histiocytoma... Our dogs have gotten lots of weird lumps and bumps over the years--most of them turn out to be fairly unworrisome. The weirdest thing I've seen were the extra nails growing on Brier's face! Now that was freaky
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Old August 4th, 2009, 02:11 PM
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Still don't know what it is, waiting for call from the vet. She said there were two kinds of cancer it could be, neither w very good prognosis, but that it didn't feel like it was cancer to her. And when she put the needle in to biopsy, it didn't act like a malignant tumor. So up until today I have managed not to worry too much. But I think I will get the results either today or tomorrow so I'm thinking about it more.

He's on antibiotics to see if that will take care of it, but I'm having a hell of a time getting him to swallow them. He is sooo stubborn. lol If anyone has any advice I need it. I've been wrapping it in cheese and then holding his mouth shut until he swallows, but sometimes he fakes me out and hasn't swallowed even though he seems to have. Sigh....
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Old August 4th, 2009, 09:13 PM
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Waiting is always the hardest part

for a good result!

As for pilling, I wrap my fingers around the upper snout so that my index finger and thumb end up behind the two canines, then fold the lips gently under the teeth so the dog will not bite down (but my dogs have droopy jowls, so I have lots of lip to work with ). The jaw will open if you move your fingers in firmly but gently behind the canines. When there's enough finger room there, slide the pill down the cheek to the back of the tongue with your other hand, get your fingers out, let go of the snout and offer a treat immediately. If you can get the pill to the back of the mouth, it'll go down automatically, and the treat makes them swallow it down all the way

Not sure if that'll work for you--we start training our dogs with small treats from day one so that when we have to pill them in earnest, they're already expecting that reward for swallowing. But give it a try! I can't tell you how much angst it's saved me when we've had to pill all 8 dogs at the same time!
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Old August 4th, 2009, 10:18 PM
defender defender is offline
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Omgosh, I can't even imagine giving pills to eight dogs in one evening! Last night I had the capsule wrapped in cheese, but that didn't last long. I must've gotten it into his mouth 3 or 4 times, and pretty far back or so I thought, and each time held his muzzle shut until it looked like he swallowed and then as soon as I let go he'd spit it out. Of course the capsule was getting more and more digested as this went on until the last time it exploded all over the place and it was FOUL. lol So it really went everywhere including all over his cheese. I walked away to get a rag to clean it up and when I came back he had eaten all the antibiotic covered cheese. Made me think next time I should just pour the capsule onto a piece of cheese and let him eat it himself. lol

Anyhow, I got some not so great news from the vet. Seems that he most likely has a mast cell tumor. The biopsy was inconclusive as to what kind of cancer it was but it seemed to definately be cancer. But I guess they ranked the likelihood's of several different kinds and the first was mast cell. The vet said that the next two on the list were not so bad, and one of them easily treatable. But for now, looks like we're dealing with a mast cell tumor. :sad: I scheduled surgery for him for next week but when I got home and told dh he wanted to see if we could get him in right away. And then I suppose they'll do a biopsy of what they remove.

So, he is ten years old, and I believe his natural lifespan would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 12 years. I feel like I might not act very aggressively if he was really elderly. Like I'd just want to make sure he felt good and use life-extending therapies only if they were relatively painless for him. BUT I feel like he is a really young ten year old. He just does not seem elderly or frail in any sense. He does lie around alot more than he did years ago, but he is very up for walks and such. He seems to jump about six feet in the air to great us when we get home. I guess I'm wondering if 10 to 12 years is realistic for him, if you didn't know he had this cancer, or if he would have lived to be 14 or 15. Seems like that could make a big difference in how he should be treated for this thing.

Here's a pic :
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Old August 4th, 2009, 10:27 PM
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Oh, he's a cutie!! Does he do that 6-feet up, all four paws off the ground thing when you get home? We have a dog that does that! Always makes me laugh...

I'm sorry you got some not-so-good news But they'll know more once they get the thing removed and can do a decent biopsy of it. Maybe it'll turn out better than you expect

Regardless, you'll be in our thoughts and prayers!
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  #10  
Old August 4th, 2009, 10:48 PM
defender defender is offline
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Thanks, HRP. I think I'm in denial for now, which is maybe an ok place to be. At least until we get further info. I hope we do get better news.
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