Let me start today by offering my deepest apologies to my readers. I know it has been a very long time since I have written. I have been going through a journey with my sweet girl, Gracie Jane. I am sharing this with you because one thing all pet owners have in common is that horrible feeling when you don’t know what is going on with your dog.
It started off with a funny looking toenail. It looked like every other toenail infection I had ever seen while working as a Veterinary Technician back in California. Antibiotics and foot soaks. Nail infections are tricky because they are deep in the nail and can take a while to respond to treatments and start looking better.
This nail didn’t look better at all after 2 weeks of the fore mentioned treatment and Gracie started to limp. We decided to add an antifungal medication and some pain medication. We also found on blood work that she is quite Hypothyroid without most of the major symptoms ( always let your Vet run blood work on senior pets. You never know what you will find.) After a few days she felt better but the nail just looked weird to me. Weirder, I should say. I decided to give it a soak. The soaking released a little plug in her nail and weird puss came out. It would have grossed out the average owner but it didn't really phase me. I dried her paw and there was clearly a hole in her toenail. I have never seen such a thing. The next morning we called up our Vet ( Dr. Hill at Surprise Animal Hospital. She is wonderful and I highly recommend her.) and set up an appointment. She and I both agreed that at this point the nail needed to come off.
Gracie was sedated and the nail removed. Attached to the base of the nail was a growth. It was ugly. They saved it and showed it to me. It left a little crater in her toe so they wrapped it up and padded it for her. We sent it in for biopsy and after 5 nail biting days the results came back as probable squamous cell carcinoma. A pretty nasty tumor, so now we are planning on amputating the rest of her toe. The Dr. assured me that normally these tumors do not spread so amputating the toe should be the end of it. Fingers crossed, I am calling to schedule the surgery for some time in the next few days. Something is also going on with one of her eyes starting yesterday ( maybe one of the medications? Hoping it is not another growth.) and she is going to have a few more growths (small skin growths) removed and biopsied as well. I will do a follow up article to let everyone know how it went.
This dog has been a very important part of my life. She has helped me raise and socialize more foster kittens than I can count and is as gentle as a lamb with our children. Prayers and good thoughts are greatly appreciated.
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