Dusty- Double Trouble!
Name: Dusty
Species: Canine
Breed: Beagle
Sex: Female spey
Age: 9y 2m
Weight: 18.2kg
History: This is a tale of a patient who presented for one procedure and ended up having another! Dusty is a lovely Beagle who first presented to Dr Kate with a very sore back leg after running around outside one night. Dr Kate prescribed anti-inflammatory pain medication and strict rest for 5 days. Dusty’s lameness improved initially with treatment, but recurred, so Dr Kate recommended x-rays of the leg under anaesthesia.
Examination: Dr Kate examined Dusty before her anaesthesia. Patients are always examined just prior to anaesthesia to ensure it is safe to proceed. Dusty was given a sedative and an intravenous catheter was placed in her leg. An anaesthetic induction agent was then given intravenously and once Dusty was asleep, an endotracheal tube was then placed into her trachea to administer oxygen and anaesthetic gas. When placing the endotracheal tube, Dr Kate discovered a growth at the back of Dusty’s throat. This was not normal.
Dr Kate very gently placed the endotracheal tube into Dusty’s trachea, careful to avoid the growth. Once Dusty was stable, her anaesthetic was monitored by a nurse while Dr Kate called Dusty’s owners to inform them of the finding. Dr Kate advised Dusty’s owners that the growth should be surgically removed whilst Dusty was asleep. Once removed it could be sent off to the laboratory to find out if it was a tumour or a benign growth. Unusual growths inside the mouth can often be very serious.
Treatment: Dusty’s owners consented to this additional surgery so Dr Kate carefully removed the growth. She then placed it in formalin, a special solution to preserve the tissue on its journey to the laboratory by courier.
Dr Kate then proceeded to perform the manipulations and x-rays of Dusty’s left hind leg, the procedure she was originally scheduled for! Dusty recovered well from her anaesthesia, surgery and x-rays and went home that night after an antibiotic injection and pain relief. The leg x-rays showed no obvious bony cause for her sore leg, indicating it was muscular sprain of some type.
Outcome: The laboratory results for Dusty’s oral growth returned 5 days later. The veterinary pathologist identified it as a ‘benign oral polyp’. The pathologist reported that it was a proliferative lesion that was likely secondary to trauma (an injury in her mouth, perhaps from a stick or bone) and that her body had tried to heal the lesion with ‘exuberant fibrovascular granulation tissue’. Happily there was no evidence of cancer cells in the growth. The pathologist also reported that the growth was excised in its entirety meaning that the surgery was curative and the growth could not spread or reform. Dusty’s owners were very happy with the results!