Chloe's Visit with Dr. Ross

[juliemaye]

Hi everyone!

So, I got Chloe into the vet today. (Happy Valentine's Day, Chlo, LOL)

Dr Ross (my vet) basically said she definitely has mites. Her, and Buster are getting treated. I purchased a spray for the upholstery and will be maintaining my every-other-day vacuuming rituals, and will also be disinfecting everything.

I will continue to change their cages every single day until their treatments are done, and the mites are cleared. (Buster isn't showing any signs, but apparently it can take 2-3 weeks for the initial batch to hatch?)

She got revolution, purple. They did a skin scraping.

I am so scared because they found some lumps in her neck and dewlap (?) area. Fairly large ones...almost golf-ball sized. Dr. Ross said due to her overall health, she is assuming that these lumps are fatty tissue, and are harmless, although I can opt to have them tested later on to see if they're cancerous.

If they are cancerous, she said it would be useless to do surgery or anything, so we would just let her live her life out happily until she's "done"...

I am sort of concerned, but Dr. Ross seemed fairly confident that they were just fatty growths. Hopefully she's right!

For the next 6 weeks I will be going to the vet, anyway. Next Friday with Buster, the following with Chloe, and then back and forth, back and forth, until the 3/ea are done.

Just thought everyone would be happy with the update. I'm worried like you wouldn't believe, but happy to know that she should be comfortable, soon.

Cheers -

Julie, Buster, Chloe, Onyx, Kitty, Plex & Minnowsx3... <3

 

[Nancy McClelland]

ray:

 

[PaGal]

I am glad that you now have an answer to what the issue was. I'm praying that it does turn out to be just fatty tissue and that she will be well.

 

[juliemaye]

Thank you, guys. It will be at least another 3 weeks before we can go in for that test (praying I can afford it!) And from there another few days to get the results...they want to take a few because they found a few lumps around her neck... hopefully it's nothing and I can greatly improve her quality and length of life. She's a beauty and I am already so in love with her, I dread the idea of it possibly being something else.

 

[Tammy B]

Glad to hear for your buns that it was all sorted out

 

[juliemaye]

Thank you, Tammy!

 

[missyscove]

What's the test they want to do? Is it a fine needle aspirate? That's a pretty typical starting point for a mysterious lump and it's where your vet will poke the lump and take a look under a microscope at what kinds of cells are inside. It gives them an idea of if they're dealing with a fatty tumor (lipoma) or something worse. That was the first step in diagnosing my Fiona's mammary cancer but I've also done FNA's on dogs where we saw anything from a very obvious mast cell tumor to a very obvious lipoma.
As far as it being useless to do surgery on a cancer patient, veterinary oncology has come a long way and many pet get not only surgery but also chemotheraphy and radiation these days. Of course, you also have to weigh the costs (monetary, physical and emotional) of those procedures against the quality of life of the pet, but I wanted to leave this here so other pet owners realize that there are definitely options.

 

[juliemaye]

Thanks!
I hope it's just fatty cells I wouldn't be able to afford the cures for cancer...

Is Lipoma curable?

 

[juliemaye]

And yes the FNA is what she wants to do

 

[missyscove]

Generally you just leave the lipomas unless they're getting so big or are in an awkward place and cause a problem, then they can be removed (for example, I know of a dog that had one in his armpit so it made it hard for him to walk so that one was removed.)