One day in the middle of May, Buffy refused to get out of bed and go for a walk. The night before she had been slow on our evening walk, not acting like her normal bouncy self, but I figured that she just ate something that didn’t agree with her and would recover quickly.
The vet sampled her swollen neck glands and warned me of the possibility of lymphatic cancer. Fortunately, the test results showed non-cancerous salivary gland tissue. Six hours after receiving antibiotics, Buffy was acting almost normal. However, the swollen salivary glands, the size of golf balls, persisted – for months. It affected both sides equally. The vet said that the swelling may go away or she may need surgery – but she wouldn’t do the surgery. It was too delicate with too many blood vessels and nerves. She recommended a specialist and said: “I don’t want to kill your dog.” That made me hesitate, and the cost of the specialist.
Months went by. Buffy played ball, lots of ball, went for long walks, ate plenty of food, and had absolutely no problem except for her “mumps” as I called them.
A few weeks ago, I noticed another bump forming by her throat. I figured her “mumps” were spreading and took her back to the vet, ready to face the required surgery, or at least find out my options. She took a sample and said that the new bump was saliva, oozing from her swollen salivary glands and collecting near her throat. If I did nothing, she would probably get an infection.
Buffy’s only 5 years old and is very energetic, so I decided to take her to the specialist. He said that if I didn’t have Buffy get the bumps removed, eventually enough saliva would collect that it could limit her breathing and she could die. Okay – now I had to have the surgery.
It turned out one of her salivary glands had ruptured and was leaking saliva into her skin tissues, causing the new bump. He also said that most of the tissue was necrotic, but non-cancerous, so this should be the end of it (keep my fingers crossed). In the meantime Buffy had drainage tubes to reduce the swelling. She had two tubes by her throat and one under each ear.
Now, a week later, her tubes are out and so are the stitches. She’s feeling great and so am I!
This article below describes what Buffy had.
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2089&aid=475
