The vet says it's probably a sebaceous adenoma and not a problem in itself, but since it's bothering him, it needs to come off or it could become a problem later. So, we're going back week after next and he'll freeze it off, like a wart. While I was getting Panda ready for the vet that morning, I had realized that a little rashy patch on his side that he's had for a short while was getting worse. So I asked the vet to take a look at that, too. After the vet clipped the area and cleaned it, this is how it looked:
It's not really quite as red and angry as it looks in the picture. It's an oval area of little slightly-raised lesions that get scabby, itch, and also seem to be a bit painful. The vet says this is a bacterial infection that can probably be treated topically, though if that doesn't clear it up, or if it spreads, Panda may need an oral antibiotic. He prescribed this:
(Enlarging the picture makes the name legible.) So, tonight I was putting on the ointment, and what did I find on his other side but ANOTHER red, raised, bothersome area that he had clearly been gnawing and nibbling at. I swear it wasn't there this morning. The picture is pretty bad and I can't see it clearly enough myself to be sure if it's another area of the same rash or possibly another irritated, tiny sebaceous adenoma. I will treat it with the same ointment, watch it, and show it to the vet if it's not improving when we go back to take the other one off his foot. What a nuisance. Could he have picked up the bacterial thing at the groomer's, do you suppose?
5 comments:
I didn't see this down here yesterday for some reason.
I wish I knew more about skin disease...we're in the middle of dermatological pathology right now, so if you guys could take a biopsy and put it on a slide and send it my way, I could maybe try to diagnose it.
I'd say the 2nd spot is another infection, and it's probably not a bad idea to get the oral antibiotic. Clip the area around it, if you can, and clean it with some warm wet cotton balls or something.
For some reason, my posts are showing up with time stamps a couple of hours earlier than I post them, so they don't show up on top -- they slide in under older posts. It doesn't seem to be in my time settings, so I am not sure why it's happening.
Meanwhile, I will clip the area as best I can and clean it up, and check with the vet about it by phone on Monday. The larger rashy area is noticeably drier and calmer after just 24 hours. As Dad points out, though, there's a steroid in the ointment, so the apparent improvement doesn't necessarily mean that the bacteria are giving up that quickly.
The medicine prescribed is a catch-all. It has two abx, a steroid and an anti-fungal. Its efficacy is not an indication of a bacterial infection.
Can't tell you how much I enjoyed this set of Murphy pix just before dinner -- but then I was warned, wasn't I? Not being a vet student reader and all.
Speaking of students, Lucy went to her children's lit conference at U of Toronto, but missed first half -- her Tuscon broke down before she quite made it to Toronto, so she spent the night, got it going this morning by adding transmission fluid, and took it to a Hyundai dealer to be flushed and filled with fresh fluid -- did not find a leak, so maybe it came that way and maybe Walmart didn't really check all the fluids when she last had it serviced.
But tonight she said the conference was worth the hassle -- she met a student who was recording the whole thing, and has already been e-mailed the recording of those parts she missed. And she talked to lots of authors and interesting people.
That'll teach you to come to the blog at dinnertime. Recall the dog and horse carcass pictures from Caleb's anatomy lab that showed up here last year at about this time. What do you mean, you don't want to recall them??
Poor Lucy, car trouble is not great when you are by yourself and far from home -- in another country, no less! I'm glad the conference was a success, though.
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