The big guy, Heyoka, has had a rough week, much of it spent at the vet.
It started with an odd swelling under his eye on Tuesday night and a quick trip to the on-call emergency vet. We thought it was "just" an abscessed tooth. Not fun, not cheap, but easy easy enough to fix with a little dental surgery. So we booked that for next week. The ER vet was a bit concerned about his breathing and suggested he had laryngeal paralysis. Heyoka is a noisy breather and his breathing was very laboured that night. Check for that too when he was knocked for the tooth problem. Because my dogs can never do anything the easy way, Heyoka threw in a extremely high fever. So we got sent home with an appointment for next week, antibiotics and Metacam.
Heyoka's fever did not respond to the Metacam so we were back at the clinic Wednesday afternoon. He stayed the night on IV fluids and antibiotics. I've never seen such a pathetic looking dog! He didn't move when I left his kennel, no wooing, no complaints all about being left behind. His dental surgery was moved up to Friday morning(my thanks to whoever allowed their dog to be bumped so mine could get help!)
Thursday afternoon my big, happy goof dog was back. So bouncey that he pulled his IV out while out for a pee break and got to come home for the night. Friday morning back to the clinic, we were getting good at that! Heyoka didn't even argue about getting in the van. He is not a fan of riding in a vehicle, especially the van...the van does not go down the trail to the fun places!
The tooth part of his surgery went fairly well. He lost two teeth, two BIG teeth! Once his gums heal, the tooth loss will have little effect. Right now he's enjoying eating canned food; it's easy to hide his pills in too so it works for both of us!
The rest of the results are not so good, they are damn crappy. Heyoka does not have laryngeal paralysis; that would have been bad, but I'd prefer it right now! His larnyx is thickened and hard. That's why his voice is always a little hoarse and why his breathing is so noisy. He struggles a bit for every breath. His vet could not explain why this has happened, but as it continues to progess, Heyoka will have a harder and harder time breathing, eventually leading to a respitory crisis. There was more bad news...he has actual holes in and around his tonsils and small lumps throughout his throat. Biopsy samples were taken from several spots in his throat and from the swelling on his face, but we are fairly sure that the big guy has cancer.
The prognosis is grim and it appears we will not have our clown for much longer, certainly not for as long as we had hoped. We'll do everything we can for him though and keep him happy and comfy for as long as possible.
