Shannon's Consultation with the Veterinary Oncologist in Richmond

We saw Dr. Waite, the Oncologist, in Richmond today. This growth is a benign cancer that is acting like a malignant cancer. Shannon is scheduled for surgery Monday to remove the growth. She shouldn't need any radiation or chemotherapy. The surgeon, Dr. Aktay, looked at it today and said that she felt she could remove it and get good, big margins. Dr. Waite also found something in Shannon's armpit and took a sample to see what it is (cytology) and found it is a lump of fat. All of my girls have these lumps... Anyway, we have to be there at 8:00AM Monday for the surgery. Ugh... I'll have to leave here around 5:30AM to be sure we get there on time... The bill today was:
   Consultation                         165.00
   Cytology                                 80.00
   Pre-surgery blood work         122.00
     Total                                   367.00

Shannon's Pending Appointment

My appointment in Richmond with the Veterinary Oncologist is on Wednesday 10/29 at 5:00PM. Google maps says 1 hour and 20 minutes to get there, so I'm going to allow an hour extra since traffic is a crap shoot at that time of day...

Shannon's Referral to Dogwood

Today, I received the referral for Shannon to the Oncologist at Dogwood Veterinary Emergency and Specialty Center in Richmond, Va. That's 83 miles from home. Ugh... I'll call tomorrow to make an appointment.

Shannon's Benign Growth -- Fibroadnexal Hamartoma

I'm writing this post in the hopes that it helps someone else who has a dog with the same problem. One of my dogs (Shannon) has had a spot on her shoulder where the skin is thickened. The spot has been getting bigger and bigger. I have pointed it out to my vet every year at her annual exam. At first, the vet said that it felt like scar tissue, which is true. However, I told her that Shannon hasn't had any trauma in that area that would give her scars like that. In subsequent annual visits, the vet still didn't think anything of it. But this year I made a bigger deal out of it and reminded my vet that it is getting bigger every year. My vet agreed that it is worrisome and we arranged for a biopsy. Here's a picture of the shaved area. You can see the green stitches where the three biopsies were taken. This was my first good look at it without the fur in the way. It was quite a surprise to see how big it is. I think my vet and I both missed the boat on this one. Note to self: be more firm when advocating for my dogs...

I got the biopsy results back and it is fibroadnexal hamartoma (fibro adnexal hamartoma). My vet explained that it's a benign tumor involving hair follicles and gland structures. I Googled it and didn't come up with any images that look like that. So, I'm going to chronicle her treatment in this new blog to add to the little bit of information that's available on this -- to maybe help somebody else. I'm going to contact my vet to get a referral to the Oncologist in Richmond, Va. From what I could find, it will have to be surgically removed. I hope there's enough skin to cover the wound that is left. They always cut out extra in order to get "good margins" so I'm sure that a pretty good chunk is going to be removed.

Here's a couple of pictures of my girls (l-r Sky, Shannon, Daisy). Sky and Shannon are Shelties (Shetland Sheepdogs) and Daisy is a Belgian Malinois mix: