Tuesday, June 25, 2013

1475. Vet Case. Jun 2012. Speedy ear tumour surgery in a 14-year-old Maltese X

"There is plenty of time," my new assistant Nia said to me. "This Maltese is 4 years old." 

I had advised my assistant to be well prepared as I wanted to perform a speedy surgery to remove the large tumour outside the ear canal and more tumours inside the ear canal.

 "She looks young," I showed Nia the eyes of the Maltese. "Look at his thick white cataract eyes. Four-year-old dogs do not have eye cataracts normally."

I said, "Young dogs can survive a longer anaesthetic time but she is 14 years old and had heart murmurs. Any lengthy surgery might lead to heart failure and death!"

 


So I was much worried about death on the operating table. The young lady owner had consented to the operation as her Maltese kept scratching the right ear till the skin bled and soiled the apartment and her furniture and her bed. She had cleaned the infected ear mass for the past 3 weeks and had given the oral antibiotics and painkillers daily. A blood test showed the Maltese had no liver, kidney or blood disorders and was fit for surgery. 

"Doc, see, the ear tumour is present only outside the ear now," Ms Jenny Lim declared ."So just remove this tumour outside the ear canal would do!" 

"The right ear has more hidden tumours inside the vertical canal. You just can't see them." I said. "Please place your fingers and  feel the hard lump way down the vertical part of the ear canal. Then compare this ear to the softness of the vertical canal of he left ear! No lumps at all."

She was the Millineal generation of dog owners who surf the net for information about her dog's ear tumours and knew more than the baby-boomer generation.

 

The dog survived the anaesthesia although she had a weak heart. The owner wanted her home on the next day and would nurse her wounds. I gave an Antisedan injection IM to reverse the drowsiness of Domitor and the dog woke up within 2 minutes. 

Old dogs should get up fast as prolonged recumbency may lead to respiratory or cardiac failure. Antisedan is a good antidote. The lady owner was happy as her dog was alive. No histopathology was done to lower medical costs.

Speedy surgery is necessary in old dogs. However, this case still took around 50 minutes. 

I am grateful that she survived the operation as old dogs are extremely high risk anaesthetic patients. Domitor + Ketamine + isoflurane + oxygen were used in this case. 


UPDATES AND DETAILS AT:
https://2010vets.blogspot.com/2013/06/1475-speedy-ear-tumour-surgery-in-14.html

 

 



ILLUSTRATION TO EDUCATE CLIENT ON FIRST CONSULTATION ON MAY 30, 2013


 


 



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