…of hounds, that is!
Background: Miss Stella is a retired foxhound that is living with me. She has a long-term, chronic ear infection that has been treated wtih every antibiotic and other ear infection antidote known to man. It’s been cultured and treated accordingly. Numerous times. By multiple vets and multiple adopters. At this point, the only option for a permanent cure is ear surgery, which is a bit costly for a 10 or 11 year old hound. So we’re just “managing” it the best we can. She’s happy, perky, and otherwise fine–except for some drainage from the ear, and annoyance with me when I clean and treat it, which is easily remedied with a treat.
Last week, she developed a VERY large lump on the side of her face that blew up within about a 48 hour period. We notice some slight swelling one day, and within 2 days, it had swollen to the point that was clear that yet another trip to the vet was in order. My first thought was that it was related to her chronic ear infection. I took her to the vet (thank goodness that my little sister married one, and I therefore get the “family discount”!), who discovered an infected tooth. He thought that the tooth was coincidental and not related to the lump, and the lump was further back that he thought it would be if it had been directly caused by the tooth; but removed the tooth anyway, as it did need to come out. He also lanced the lump, and got some drainage, but not as much as he was expecting for a lump that size. There were a lot of white blood cells in the fluid, which would indicate infection, but he also took a couple of tissue samples and saved them in case the lump didn’t go away after the tooth extraction and a two-week course of amoxycillin. If it didn’t, we’d have the samples biopsied and checked for cancer. When she came home from the vet, Stella’s lump was smaller, but still distinct.
My husband and I were out of town for the weekend, and Stella, the Crackheads (AKA, our two Australian Shepherds), and my husband’s retired narcotics K9 were left in the capable hands of my 18 year old niece. We arrived home yesterday to find Stella’s lump MUCH less swollen–a very good sign!
Fast forward to today…So I was working at home today, and had just heated up my lunch. I heard a rustling sound in front of my desk, and peer over the edge at Miss Stella, who was laying on her fleece bed in my office, and scratching lazily at her face. I then notice that she has red fluid coming out of the incision where her lump was lanced, and it’s dripping on her bed.
So I run and get a warm rag, wipe away the thin, reddish, fluid to see that she’s scratched off the scab on the incision. I gently pressed on her lump, and was able to express a good deal more fluid out of the lump; then finally a small amount of pus. EEEWWWWWWWWWWWWW! I go rinse the rag in my husband’s bathroom sink (sshhhh…don’t tell him, he’d be grossed out), and continued to get some more fluid out of the lump and clean Stella’s face.
And then I ate my lunch…
But at least I washed my hands first!
(Updated to add that the lump is almost all gone now–it was the first thing my husband noticed when he got home from work today!)