Littleman's Ear Surgery
by Margaret Merchant
Littleman came to me as a cast off. Someone had driven across town to leave him at my vet's, either to find a home or be put down. One call and he had a new home. At the time he was five, and had a huge tumor coming out of the left ear conal. Any time he played or brushed it against something, it would bleed. Plus it was obvious from the smell that it had decaying blood or matter down in his ear. We had no idea how long he had been this way, but the tumor was about an inch in diameter.
Dr. Joe got Littleman ready for his surgery. We didn't know what would come of it, as most worried owners are. As you can see, the tumor covered most of his lower ear and I didn't know how much change there would be in the ear shape, or if he would loose his ear entirely. We had to wait until the surgery to see what was going on.
Mast cells are found in the thicker, underlaying part of the skin called the dermis. They are cells that release histamine containging granules when the body has an allergic reaction. For some reason, they sometimes grow out of control and create masses. The preferred treatment is surgery. In other places they may just feel like a small bump under the skin.They can be canerous or none-concerous, so they do need to be looked at by your veterinarian.
I have had many animals who had these tumors and knew that sometimes the surgical incisions can be larger than what the tumor seemed to be, in order to excise the entire tumor. However, Littleman's ear looked surprising normal. It was folded in a bit too far at the bottom, and had stitches coming out of the canal, but looked pretty good. However, he didn't want anyone touching it. There was swelling and a lot of dried blood around the stitches. Even in my poor picture, you can see how much blood is caked around the bottom.
It took almost a month for Littleman's ear to be normal. He was very protective of it for the whole time, I think it was still very tender. But after the stitches dissolved, the swelling went away and we cleaned him up good, he looks pretty normal. If you look very closely, you might notice some slight difference in the ear shape, but not much. And although 5 is moving past middle age a bit, he recovered from surgery very fast. You shouldn't let age alone make a decision about surgery. Things to also consider are overall health and attitude, what the surgery is for and what the prognosis is overall.
Thanks to Dr. Joe Liljenquis and the Animal Medical Clinic at 215 S 500 W Bountiful, UT. You can reach them at (801) 292-7219.