Aural Hematoma in Pets

Harper and Drew got into a fight over a rawhide chew on the 7th of February. I was unable to get to them with a spray bottle to break it up, so it lasted longer than an ordinary fight. Toward the end I heard yelping. Not a good sign. As usual after a fight I checked the both of them over really well.

While Drew was fine, Harper had a number of minor lacerations to the outside of his ear or pinna.  He shook his head before I could clean him up and stop the bleeding.  I later found blood on my bathroom mirror and the top of my toilet from a 23 lb dog shaking his head.  But the shaking did more than dirty up the bathroom.

I checked Harper's ears the next day and found a squishy but painless swelling the size and shape of a lima bean on the underside of Harper's pinna. Hmmm... lima bean.  I planned to let it go, and if it was still there when my dogs went for their annual visit in March, I'd let the vet know. A week later it was still painless but it had the thickness of large baby carrot and extended about 2 1/2 inches down to the tip of his pinna. The weight of it caused his ear to hang low. The next day the vet pronounced the swelling an aural hematoma.

The pinna is composed of cartilage sandwiched between two layers of skin. If a capillary is injured it can leak out stretching and filling the space between skin and cartilage. For most dogs, repeated head shaking causes the injury.The usual cause for this shaking is an ear infection or ear mites. Harper's ears were free from infection and mites. Trauma was the cause of his hematoma. His head shaking must have busted a fight-injured capillary or increased bleeding from one that was already ruptured from the fight.

My vet explained three methods of treatment, two of which she would not do.

Mr. H Surgery #2

Mr. H's second surgery for re-excision of the scar and reconstruction is scheduled for the 27th. His surgeon taught small animal surgery at Purdue University for 5 years before coming to the animal hospital. I was impressed with her and the way she described the operation to me; I trust Mr. H will be in good hands.

During surgery, Dr. A will remove the scar tissue and get better margins on the sides.  For the lower portion that did not have a clean margin, she will go in much deeper and take out what she thinks is abnormal tissue.  (She explained that most of her work is done through palpitation not sight.  The tendrils of the tumor are microscopic.  She relayed that studies prove the hands and limbic systems of surgeons can determine if something is abnormal before the conscious mind.  In other words is tissue doesn't feel right, she's taking it, whether or not it looks weird. Another example of how we don't know all that we know.) She will call the pathologist to see what sarcoma's origin tissue was-  .  She will take more of that type of tissue, unless it is a nerve sheath sarcoma. If she takes the nerve, his leg would have to come off. He'll be in the hospital for 3 days.  Since the incision is so deep they'll use a negative pressure wound vac on him.  I suspect they'll keep him pretty drugged up so he doesn't bite it off. Also, as much as I hate that he will be away and in pain, I'm glad he is staying there so they can manage his pain hour to hour, and as a bonus (!) and much as I love and want to take care of him, I don't have to see the incision immediately after surgery. 

I asked for something that could increase the cost of the surgery by over a third: reconstruction so that he will lose no range of motion and maintain his ability to run and have fun.  For me, a dog's whole point in life is mobility.  While a human can make do and even thrive confined to a bed or wheelchair, a dog would not have a fulfilling life.  At least in my opinion.

The sarcoma is a skin cancer, so they took of a good bit of skin in the first surgery and sewed it back together. Mr. H has no problem with running now. In fact he acted like he never had surgery. He and his sister made a jail break about 2 weeks after his surgery and he was as fast as ever. The second surgery will take more skin to increase the margins on the sides so there is less to pull together without too much tightness.  She offered a couple of options, and I told her to do what she needed to do:

1) there may be enough skin to simply close the wound normally
2) make a flap out of some skin lower on the leg and fold it over, she drew a picture but I don't understand.  Add four days more to hospitalization
3) take skin from somewhere else on the body. Also add four more days.

Good news through- a study of dogs with soft tissue sarcomas who had the second surgery showed that there is only a 9% chance of recurrence.

The surgery estimate minus the $$ is below the fold. I'm embarrassed to say how much this will cost - approximately 6 mortgage payments.

Worth a Thousand Words

I wanted to share a couple of my other blogs- well they're more collections of images. I love going through public archives. Many many pictures speak to me, so rather than having a zillion bookmarks in my Firefox browser, I figured I'd make my own picture album.

I love children and animals.  When I see pictures of children, I wonder what it is like to be in their shoes. I want to know what they think and feel.  Where do they live?  What does their bedroom look like?  How do they amuse themselves? I also like how fashion evolves through the years.

Animals are just cute, but my favorite are group pictures, maybe a vacation shot or a family portrait, with a dog sleeping off to the side or perched contentedly in someone's lap.  Those type of pictures make me smile.

Anyway, here they are:

Archived Children & Archived Animals

Ms. D's Anal Adventures

Not a low-quality porn dvd... It's my real life!

Ms. D, my six-year-old hyperactive half-wiener dog, went into the hospital a couple months ago for lavage of a ruptured anal gland (or anal sac). This post is for dog owners, therefore WARNING: There is a picture of this after the fold. 

The Belted Kingfisher

As I was leaving work, I came upon a handsome belted kingfisher sitting motionless on the sidewalk. It is likely that the bird ran into the glass windows of my office building and stunned itself.  A little time and it would have been able to fly off perfectly fine, but I was still concerned. I felt a tug in my heart and sat with the bird for about 20 minutes until I got a response from a park ranger. I picked it up to put it in a box, and it flew about 10 feet away from me.  I picked it up again and placed it in a large flower pot by the fountain so it could recover out of site from people or predators.  It flew away sometime yesterday night.

Cocker on the Look Out

via http://attackofthecute.com

Have $800. Need Water Buffalo.

I was playing on the internet one day and I found this: Water Buffalo Mount from a wild water buffalo. This water buffalo mount will have natural imperfections customarily found on all wild animals. $800.



I have a few thoughts:

1. Good God! Water buffalo are massive.

2. How did this animal meet its end?  The company says the animal parts it sells are by-products of agriculture or government culling programs.

3. Even though the animal had to die, the taxidermist did it justice.  It looks great, unlike this poor creature.

4. All the mounts in restaurants like Longhorn Steaks and Bugaboo Creek must be picked up at a warehouse like this.

5. Do I have room in my house?

via

Blizzard, the pup in Antarctica / photograph by Frank Hurley by State Library of New South Wales collection

via

Young lady and birdcages by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums

In this image we can see a young lady stood on the steps of a traditional style wooden caravan. She's tending to a parrot in one of the birdcages.

The images have been selected from the Arthur J Fenwick collection of circus material.
Arthur James Fenwick (1878-1957) was a director of Fenwick's Department Store. In his personal life he was extremely interested in fairs and circuses, collecting historical material about them and building personal relationships with showmen who visited Newcastle. He was made a life member of the Showmen's Guild in 1944.

Dream: Lion Bite on the Loose

Skipnclick / Lion pawsing for thought

Taking pictures of a male lion in a capital rotunda (known because it had a mane).  It was a state capitol, but I don't know which one.  I was assisting with the photography. The lion came around to me and gently wrapped its mouth around the top of my head.  Its top jaw was just above my eyebrows and its lower jaw was at the back of my neck. Even though it was a play bite, gentle is a relative term especially when it comes to a lion, and I felt my skull reacting to the pressure.

*******

Guerito \ Yawn

The photographer and I showed the pictures to the Governor and she approved them.  There was one problem though - the lion got free!

******

I'm in a neighborhood sitting at a picnic table with three other people deep in someone's backyard. We see the lions across the street, but luckily they don't come to bother us.  I call 911 to report the lions and the dispatcher tells us to stay together in a group and remain still.  If we split up and run it will trigger the lions' prey drive and they will chase us.

CJLL #3- Boot Blacking Ephemera

Two advertising cards for shoe polish from the Carter-Johnson Leather Library:

Larger Version Here

                                                    Frank Miller's French Blacking New York

Larger Version Here

                                                             Bull Frog Shoe Polish 5 cents

A snake has gotta eat!

A fisherman caught a bluegill only to have a northern water snake follow the fish out of the water, onto land, and begin to eat it.

King of the Jungle

I've watched enough nature specials to know that lions do not live in the jungle.

During the hot days they lounge under shade trees.  Is it sunny in the jungle?  No.
Do zebra, watter buffalo and antelope live in the jungle?  No.

The tiger is a king of the jungle.  The jaguar is a king of the jungle.

In the jungle
the mighty jungle
the tiger sleeps tonight.

At Germany's Frankfurt Zoo via Cute Overload

In the jungle
the mighty jungle
the jaguar sleeps tonight.

At Huachipa Zoo in Lima, Peru via Cute Overload

Elephant Dreams

I was outside my workplace which has a nice courtyard with large mature trees and backs up to a feast or famine branch of the Anacostia River.  I was on a wooden swing hanging from one of these trees and I was swinging back and forth high above the ground. From the river area hundreds of miniature elephants emerged and began walking around underneath me. The biggest ones were the size of a large dog, the smallest the size of a teacup chihuahua. They were beautiful to see, they walked around in large circles. I would twist the swing around so that on each pass I'd be able to look down at them.  Someone else was there with me, and I asked her how many elephants there were. I had tried to count them but was unsuccessful.  She said it did not matter how many there were.  Later I told the elephants not to come back to this place tomorrow because there would be alot of people there.

I remembered this dream when I looked at this post at www.cuteoverload.com

The Tiniest of the Tiny Toads

I found this critter in my backyard.  It was the size of my thumbnail. It strongly disapproved of the whole situation.