Histiocytoma is a common skin tumor in dogs, especially boxers, and their mixes. But they can happen in any dog. They are some of the least threatening lumps, but they do have the potential to be very serious. They come up rather quickly, and they are itchy, and they gain the attention of the dog. They have a tendency to look quite a bit like a strawberry on the skin, and the dog eventually licks the top of it off.
The lump in the picture, is a classic example of histiocytoma. I took a picture, because nothing looks more like a histiocytoma than this.
You can limit access and stop them from licking these lesions and apply a Cortizone cream like 1% Cortizone 10, once or twice a day for a week before surgery. Just in case it decides to remit and go away with that. Less than one out of 10 will go away on their own, in my clinical experience, but it is worth a try.
If left alone, they can consume too much space for easy removal, additionally, it has been shown that sometimes they spread to other organs, if left alone too long.
“My wife bought it thinking it will stimulate my dog’s appetite.”
“There’s nothing wrong with her appetite. She stopped growing, so she eats only 25% of the calories that she needed three months ago. We can do an experiment. Check out this link.
You will find that her body condition score is a four Or even a BCS4 plus I have not seen her recently, but I know this to be true, because if she was at all underweight, she would eat very very well. In other words she’s as heavy as she needs to get. And their appetite falls off dramatically. They will only eat for taste and NOT need at that point, and get fat. If the food isn’t dressed with gravy, they won’t eat much of it because they don’t need it.
The following will never happen with you, but it has happened before:
Eventually, they get so fat, their body goes into Leptin-emergency mode, and then they’ll only eat if you put whip cream, syrup, skittles, and bacon on their food.
She’s a body condition score 4, maybe even a 4+. I haven’t even seen her, and I *know* this because if she was even one pound underweight, she would inhale plain dry food.”
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This dog, literally will not eat anything unless it tastes amazing. I’m talking, stroganoff or ice cream. And the owner defends its weight by saying “it hardly eats anything“
And of course it doesn’t. How many calories does that thing NEED? Zero… Zero cal for probably the next two weeks. And if it got beef stroganoff, and garlic bread for dinner today, why on earth would it eat a dry dog food tomorrow? Nope. That ^ dog is doomed.
He asked: “How can I get his weight down if it won’t a diet food?”
Answer: “By feeding the diet food. And watch as he doesn’t eat again until it actually NEEDS to. Which could be a week.”
“No doc, you got it wrong. He is *starving* to death. Not for DRY food, no, that’ll sit for days….but yes for potato chips and bacon. He won’t leave me alone if I have those things. He’s surely starving to death.”
“He’s not. He’s literally addicted to salt, fat, and sugar. There were studies they were done in a darker time of human history (1945) where they found out that the dog could live for 30 to 45 days without eating a bite. It’s actually unharmed going without food for 30 days. But between day 30, and day 45 it consumes organs, smooth muscle, cardiac muscle, and brain fat.”
“She has been getting 2/3 cup am and pm and 1/3 cup at noon. Change that?”
If you feed her 2/3 of a cup in the morning and 1/3 of a cup in the afternoon, that’s a cup a day. That’s enough for a 30 pound dog unless she’s getting a shi_ ton of treats. I am guessing that she gets kind of a lot of treats, and that her weight is actually very good. And that the one cup of food total per day is plenty, leaving her appetite for the dry-food-served-dry, just about right. You may have hit the golden note of weight maintenance! Don’t jack it up by “getting her to eat.” It sounds like she’s doing well. Do you wanna send me a picture of her waist line as she standing. I’ll bet it tapers nicely.
This is a bad collar for a cat. Here’s a flea collar. I think you should avoid. We had a cat into the office and it had some kind of collar on. I think it was a flea collar. But it’s just engineered out of a cable tie. It has the ability to get tighter, but it does not have the ability to get looser.
And you can see in one of the pictures. It was already chewing on the free end of the cable tie. If another animal came up and grabbed the end of the cable tie, it could cinch that down on the cats neck, fatally.
The owner just doesn’t know better. But the manufacturer obviously does not care. “Get the product out there. Just sell them.”
Why not take a look at your cats flea collar, and see if it’s just a cable tie. Sure, it might have chemicals in it, but just make sure it can come off if he gets his neck hung up on something. And make sure that if a dog grabs it, it can’t be tightened, fatally.
Please note, this says beef bones. Beef, knuckle, bones. For dogs to chew on. When you get them, if they are gristly, try and cut off most of it because of belly full of gristle can cause diarrhea in sensitive house dogs.
Attempts show what a knucklebone looks like when you get it, and then what it looks like after a day or three of gnawing by a 60 pound dog.
LOts of life left in the chewed on bone. I won’t take that away from Ajax probably for another few days.
I have published other more thorough articles on knucklebones, including some downloads, posted at Drjohnson.com, as well as drjohnson.net.
Your dog busted a bloodvessel in the “flippyflap” part of the left ear.
We can “leave it alone' and itll bust open all the way, or resorb and crinkle like a pringle and a ruffle had a baby.
Some people used to just pop the thing with a jacknife and send em out into the yard to clot and that works, too. Gotta keep 'em from shaking their heads so they don't bleed again / more. But they can't really bleed to death so it was a pragmatic, 1940's and messy way to fix these
We can tape overhead and drain it with Kenalog infusion and that's a great way to do it with less mess, pain and better (less] crinkling.
I think the other dog mighta broken that vessel. The ear isn't infected at the moment.
The ear can be incised with a long, linear incision and then the flippyflap embroidered / quilted together with multiple little sutures. This is very profitable. It is arguably overkill.
I think if it was a show dog and you wanted the best chances of “healing without a trace”!
Case: Good morning, Ms. has a nasty torn toenail *again*. I’m attaching an image for your review and opinion if we need to bring her to the office today (Tuesday). The injury happened Monday afternoon. Treatment provided has been a couple of soakings in warm water and cleaning as she would tolerate with antibiotic solution from my med bag. No dressing has been applied.
Thanks,
S J E
Me: GOOD LORD Yeah pull that off. If you think you'll get bitten, bring her in. I'll do it. Epsom soak occasionally. (When looking dirty or crusty) It can be licked. They'll clean 'em better than you can. With less pain. Needs antibiotics (if mine, I would) to prevent infection ascending the capillary bed.) Sometimes infection gets into the third phalanx (“fingertip” and the bone turns into a bulky 'hive' of germs and lytic bone. And has to be removed. You can call the office (in this case because I've seen it) and ask 'em to fill Baytril, Zeniquin, Clindamycin, Clavamox or Simplicef for at least a week. CC: Office.
So I just saw Lexxie T. the terrier and she has this mouth like, it’s brand new. And she’s ELEVEN years old.
So, what this owner did was have the teeth professionally cleaned. (We did it) and she IMMEDIATELY started on this Leba III dental spray. Just once a day, at night before bed: She opens Lexxie’s mouth and sprays ONE pump of spray onto her tongue and encourages her to go lay down and sleep. No water or food, just >spritz< and that’s it. Off to bed.
She also uses Dentastix. Lots of my clients give Dentastix, but their dog’s mouths are ‘just okay’ like Toy Story II.
Lexxie’s teeth are unusual. And I think it’s the Leba III
They’re sparse with the ingredients. And it’s made in Canada and the label’s primarily in French but there’s an English 'sig' you can understand. I don’t know what’s in it, but it works.
Mrs. T said it was expensive, and it is: Like $45 but a bottle will last months. That’s a better deal than Oxyfresh.
GSK-031622.pptx
