She examined the ear and feels that it is most likely a benign histiocytoma and is hopeful that the steroid cream she gave me will shrink its size. The size it is now over the very thin skin of the ear, she's afraid if they surgically remove it, there won't be enough skin for it to heal properly and he may end up with a hole in his ear.
Next issue was the "humping seizure" like activity. Without actually seeing the activity she feels that he was just overexcited about something. Who knows what, with a dog, it could have been anything and that "humping" has rarely been associated with any type of seizure activity in dogs.
My next concern was Amos back legs. He runs funny. Always has. He has kinda of a side ways positioning of his back legs and he never runs with his back legs and front legs in unison. His back legs just kinda bounce along with his front legs doing all the work. He also will yelp in pain sometimes if you bump his back legs. Sometimes when he jumps up on something, if he doesn't hit it just right, his back legs kinda collapse and he yelps and turns and nips at his legs. This doesn't happen often, but it looks painful when he does it. It also doesn't last long. When I go out and run Amos every day. He usually will run to get the ball about 3 times. After that he kinda walks to get it and I usually quit throwing. I kinda thought he was just lazy but now I'm beginning to wonder.
The vet a thorough exam and when she felt along his spine, she felt a definate hump in his lower spine. When she manipulated his back legs, gently, he yelped and nipped at her.
She says the only way to know for sure if he has some type of congenital spinal deformity will be to xray it. He has to be anesthetized for this and because it wasn't an emergency and he is not acute, we have scheduled the xrays for next Friday morning. If the histiocytoma has shrunk enough they will also take that off while he is asleep for his xrays.
So that's the gist of it. He may or may not have some type of congenital defect in his spine that may be hindering him some. I'll just wait until the xrays are done to worry about what we may need to do about it.
Oh yeah, today Amos weighed 50.5lbs! He keeps growing and growing. A lady came in to get some meds refilled for her dog and she looked at him and said "Oh my goodness! He looks just like MY dog, except BIGGER!" She commented they had the same spots and ticking and everything. I asked her what her dog was and she said she had a Jack Russell/Rat Terrier mix. |