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Tuesday, 19th August 2014
The many faces of Onion! And if you think she is looking a bit glum in some of them, that's because unfortunately her lump has returned!! We noticed it over the weekend and so booked for one of the senior vets from our veterinary practice to come out to see her and today was the first available date. The lump is in exactly the same place as before and, also as with before, up until today was bothering her not in the slightest!! The vet's visit involved sticking rather a large needle in her though and drawing off (taking out) some of that 'lovely' pus - hence not looking quite so thrilled with life by the end of the day...
After the initial examination the vet outlined three options but before this he explained that we could once again be looking at the possibility that this lump was being caused by the same nasty disease they were worried about last time. The test results had come back clear (see 4th July) BUT we were advised at the time this was not 100% conclusive because of the nature of the disease, and the nature of the tests.
Our three options were:
1) to leave the lump and see what happens;
2) to draw off some pus and send it away for tests or
3) lance the lump, drain it completely of pus and then send some off for tests. Option one did not seem a great idea. Option three would have meant isolating her as before because her open wound would make her very contagious (i.e. able to pass the disease on). Plus Onion had a bad reaction to the lump being washed out last time (mainly due to the antibacterial liquid that was used) which made her face, throat and neck really swell and unfortunately it has left her with permanent thickening under her skin making eating a little difficult for her.
So, we went for option two which now means several days or even weeks of waiting!!! The good news is that we are having LOTS of tests done so this time we should hopefully find out exactly what is causing the problem here!!
As ever Onion herself is being a marvel, there were no complaints when the needle went into her lump (and it was a big needle) and no complaints when the vet felt all along her face and neck, poking and prodding to see what he could feel... As before we will keep our fingers well and truly crossed...
