My beautiful 9.5 year
old boxer Mikela was diagnosed with 2 cancerous masses on September 3, 2003.
These masses are Mast Cell Tumors. We saw an Oncologist at UC Davis on September
11 and we had them surgically removed on September 19. One from her hock
(ankle) the other on her rib cage. She also had a Histiocytoma between her
shoulder blades which was benign but they took it anyway, feeling it was
unusual in an older dog.
She was at UC Davis a total of 2 nights for this surgery. What we didn't
know is that the aftercare would turn out to be more difficult than the
surgery.
CLICK ANY PHOTO FOR A LARGER VIEW
--UPDATE 10/13/03--
Mikela looks great now. Her fluid draining is minimal now so we think the
drain will be removed at our appointment on Wed.
--UPDATE 10/11/03--
I was skeptical about the vets opinion of this issue. The swelling is huge,
the area is now hard rather than gelatenous in feel. I measured today and
it is 4" out from her side in the center, 1" out from her side
on the top and bottom. The mass is 7" tall and 5" wide. Mikela
and I did not sleep well last night. She couldn't fall asleep, finally I
cut off the compression bandage and we got 4 hours of rest.
I called UC Davis to get their opinion and as usual their comment was that
this "wasn't normal" however if she wasn't running a fever they
were not worried. I called the vets office wanting to get in. They are typically
open on Saturdays however it is my regular vet who is out of town that works
that day. I found out there were no vets int he office. I was told that
I could take her to the emergency clinic at which point I had a melt down
per se with the receptionist about the money I have spent, the care etc.
About 20 minutes later that vet called and we agreed to meet at the clinic
at 12:15 that day.
My father met me there and he was astonished. He had been on vacation with
my mom for the previous 10 days so he hadn't seen her but was in awe of
the size. The receptionist had seen nothing like it herself. This vet of
course handled it very routinely and took a look and like me did not like
the redness of the incision site which was healed mostly by now. She opted
to put in a drain.
During the drain procedure which my father and I were invited to watch,
as she made the second cut into her the seroma basically shot it's liquid
out and nearly hit the vet tech in the face. By the time the procedure was
done she looked almost back to normal. I was glad we did this. We went home
with Clavamox and a few Deramaxx pills for pain. They did all of this with
only local anestetic.
--UPDATE 10/10/03--
The fluid is growing larger. It is getting really worrysome. I called the
vet we saw on Wed and she said she wasn't worried about it. I guess I have
never seen something like this before.
--UPDATE 10/8/03--
We didn't make it until our next scheduled appointment to see the vet. My
vet is on vacation so we had to see someone else in the office, she is not
my favorite person, most likely because we both have strong personalities.
Her incision site at her rib cage began to have more fluid and instead of
just beneath it was under the entire incision site and very gelatenous in
feel. She tried to drain her with a needle to no avail and put a compression
wrap on her and told me to keep it on until next Wed when I could take her
in to see my regular vet.
--UPDATE 10/4/03--
Mikela had her sutures
removed on October 4 from all of her incision sites. Everything looked really
nice. Her foot is healing well and her side had some fluid has continued
to accumulate at the bottom of her incision site on her rib cage. The vet
has tried to drain it however it has built up walls like a honeycomb now
so it is impossible to drain it with a needle. We are going to continue
to hot compress and see how things are at our next appointment in a week
and a half when our vet is back from vacation.
The recommendation from
UC Davis was to radiate her leg where clean margins on a Grade 2 Mast Cell
Tumor were not achieved. After reading other personal accounts and the scientific
data I can find on the internet as well as consulting with an Oncologist
at Colorado State, we have decided to take a watch and wait approach. The
reoccurance rate UC Davis quoted was 40%, the chances to metastisize to
organ systems with MCT is very low and Mikela is at the bottom level of
the boxer life span (9-11years). The radiation could "cure" that
area of her foot but of course could not guarantee there will not be more
in other areas of her body. Since there were 2, Grade 2 tumors this time,
there is a high probability I would waste a ton of life quality time with
her on radiation treatments to only have a new tumor pop up. I opt for her
to go back to her life of fun and activity. So that will resume as soon
as we can get her completely recovered from this surgery.
--UPDATE 9/26/03--
Mikela had some problems with her back foot once we removed her bandage on Monday, Sept. 22. The sutures were too tight and acted like a tournicate on her leg so swelling was huge above and below the site. On Tuesday we had a rather pointless visit to another vet in my vets practice who only put a bandage on and Rxed her Amoxicillin for possible infection. On Wed we saw our regular vet and she removed some stitches in the middle of her incision and Rxed her some Deramaxx for pain. I hate to give any NSAIDS but this poor girl has been hurting. Thursday she was looking much better. We went to the vet today (Fri, 9/26/03) for a recheck. The foot is looking really good, draining A LOT. Her side was aspirated and fluid removed. We go back on Monday 9/29 for a recheck. The photos from today of her foot and side were before our vet visit.
We heard from UC Davis
Oncology today, it was not good news. Her tumors were both Grade 2 Mast
Cells. The one on her rib cage was fully removed but the one on her leg
did not get clear margins. The lab had not completed the report on the lump
on the leg yet, the Oncologist will call me to discuss the full report and
options for treatment on Tuesday 9/30. The one between her shoulder blades
is at this point and unidentified neoplasm. We hope to know more about this
on Tuesday also but certainly it is not an area we are concerned with like
her leg.
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 This is the surgical site of the removal of the Histiocytoma between her shoulder blades. 9/21/03 |
 This is the surgical site on her rear hock (ankle) this was taken 9/22/03 upon bandage removal. |
 This is the back of that same leg which had a small mass removed that was not significant. 9/22/03 |
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 Photos of Mikela's Seroma the day before we had a tube inserted. |
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 A photo of Mikela :-) |
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