Bubba Lumpless
Originally posted: Tuesday, August 23, 2005, 12:15 AM
Bubba Gump (or Bubba Lump, as he is affectionately known at the vet's office) had the last of the staples out today from his surgery three weeks ago to remove the latest collection of sebaceous cysts--eight in all, including the baseball sized one on his right hind leg--all benign, fortunately. His fur is finally growing back now, but when we first brought him home, he looked like Frankenbasset with staples all over his body. His appearance was quite alarming at first, and when we took him for his daily walks people thought he'd been in a pit basset fight or something equally horrifying. I tried assuring them he'd had a few cysts removed and was doing perfectly fine, but when they seemed unconvinced, I told them he had just returned from a tour of duty in the Iraq war. What could be more horrifying than that?
These doggoned things come up so quickly, and I held off for as long as I could because I don't like putting a nine-year-old dog under anesthesia any more than is absolutely necessary. It probably would have been worse if that big one had burst, though, not to mention messy. A smaller cyst on his shoulder had popped and was seeping intermittently. I treated it with peroxide to try drying it up. It seemed to quell it for a while, but then it would start oozing sebum again. Some pop and heal up neatly on their own, but more often than not they don't.
Bubba is far more prone to them than was our first basset, Butterscotch. She had a few cysts after she got to be very old, but this is Bubba's second surgery for this hereditary condition, and some grow quite large. The last massive one he had came up on his tail, which the vet said would be a bit tricky to remove because there's not much skin on the tail to stitch together. She wanted to remove his tail, but I said, "No way!" It would have been less expensive and an easier surgery for the vet to perform, but I just couldn't imagine a basset hound with a cropped tail.
I'm glad I stuck to my guns, because the wound healed up just fine, and Bubba still has his beautiful, long tail to wag. Unfortunately, another cyst has already started to raise up near the base of his tail. I only hope it doesn't grow as large as the last one did. As soon as we have the cysts removed, up comes a whole new crop. I wish I knew some way to keep them from recurring, but at least for now Bubba is lumpless.
Originally posted: Tuesday, August 23, 2005, 12:15 AM
Bubba Gump (or Bubba Lump, as he is affectionately known at the vet's office) had the last of the staples out today from his surgery three weeks ago to remove the latest collection of sebaceous cysts--eight in all, including the baseball sized one on his right hind leg--all benign, fortunately. His fur is finally growing back now, but when we first brought him home, he looked like Frankenbasset with staples all over his body. His appearance was quite alarming at first, and when we took him for his daily walks people thought he'd been in a pit basset fight or something equally horrifying. I tried assuring them he'd had a few cysts removed and was doing perfectly fine, but when they seemed unconvinced, I told them he had just returned from a tour of duty in the Iraq war. What could be more horrifying than that?
These doggoned things come up so quickly, and I held off for as long as I could because I don't like putting a nine-year-old dog under anesthesia any more than is absolutely necessary. It probably would have been worse if that big one had burst, though, not to mention messy. A smaller cyst on his shoulder had popped and was seeping intermittently. I treated it with peroxide to try drying it up. It seemed to quell it for a while, but then it would start oozing sebum again. Some pop and heal up neatly on their own, but more often than not they don't.
Bubba is far more prone to them than was our first basset, Butterscotch. She had a few cysts after she got to be very old, but this is Bubba's second surgery for this hereditary condition, and some grow quite large. The last massive one he had came up on his tail, which the vet said would be a bit tricky to remove because there's not much skin on the tail to stitch together. She wanted to remove his tail, but I said, "No way!" It would have been less expensive and an easier surgery for the vet to perform, but I just couldn't imagine a basset hound with a cropped tail.
I'm glad I stuck to my guns, because the wound healed up just fine, and Bubba still has his beautiful, long tail to wag. Unfortunately, another cyst has already started to raise up near the base of his tail. I only hope it doesn't grow as large as the last one did. As soon as we have the cysts removed, up comes a whole new crop. I wish I knew some way to keep them from recurring, but at least for now Bubba is lumpless.
posted by Sue @ 10:20 PM
1 Comments:
At 1:25 PM,
VitaminC said…
Hi. I was searching for cyst on the dog and found your blog. My yorkie has these too and occasionally it will pop. What I do is to squeeze all those nasty white fluid out until only blood comes out. Then I wash the wound with no-sting cleanser (made by johnson johnsons, blue bottle) until everything is clear. I also tried to shave the hair around it. Usually the wound seals within couple hours. If you avoid water in that area, the wound will be gone within a week.
Hope this helps.
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