Tonight is the full moon. Give your monthly preventatives!
Note: If you have another way to remember to give your preventatives, that’s okay too! Do what works for you. I thought it might be fun for us to all give it together.
Our fall garden out front is beautiful. My dahlias are going nuts and I am cutting them almost daily to bring to the animal hospital. I am continuing to travel and look at colleges with my son, Carter. He has been working here at the hospital so some of you may know him. I’m riding my bike to work so Carter can use the car three days a week – driving to Chariho High School as a senior. Fall is my favorite season! I recently started a class – training in how to become a spiritual companion/director. It complements the training I took that led to my ordination. I thought it might help with some of the more difficult conversations that I often have with folks around sick or dying pets. One of the things we do each class is share our joys and sorrows with one another as a way of building community. I thought I would share a joy and a sorrow, as it relates to veterinary medicine, with you.
In late August I saw three cases of bleeding splenic masses in three days. The spleen is a big tongue shaped organ in the abdomen that helps to store red blood cells so that they are there if needed and it helps to rid the body of old red blood cells that aren’t quite right. We can live without a spleen, but our immune function might not work as well as it would with a spleen.
Splenic masses are malignant in the majority of cases. Somewhere between 50 and 70% of the masses have metastasized to somewhere else in the body by the time a diagnosis has been made. The dogs I lost to splenic masses were fantastic individuals. Lovely dogs that won’t pass this way again except in spirit. One of the three had surgery. I removed the spleen and she is doing well at this time. One died of abdominal bleeding and a third chose euthanasia due to the age and condition of the dog. It was heartbreaking. Labs and Golden Retrievers are more likely to get these masses, but they can occur in any size or breed of dog.
Due to the mass being intra-abdominal, you don’t see it on the outside. You might notice that the dog just isn’t feeling great for a bit, and then later it feels better. This is because the dogs feel bad when the mass is growing or bleeding and better when it isn’t, but the signs are subtle and they wax and wane. Lab work might identify anemia from the bleeding or low platelets. Radiographs might identify the mass but often ultrasound is needed. My three patients in three days left me asking myself if I should screen older dog’s spleens via ultrasound so that we could find and remove these masses earlier. This is a service that we offer. I wanted to write about this to let owners know that any waxing and waning “not rightness” particularly in older dogs (7 and older) warrants a veterinary visit. If we find that the lab results do not identify the issue, the next step should probably be to go to ultrasound and make sure that the spleen is normal.
On the joy side, just look at this cat!
Can so many toes not make you happy?
His owner drives school bus number 23 and his number of toes is exactly the same as the number on her school bus.
Meet Jasper!
Happy back to school!
Enjoy the beautiful fall weather.