[Dailydrool] Too much drool!

[Rosemary Ryan]

It took 4 visits to two vets to figure out what was wrong ($$$$$$$$$$), 
but a CT scan finally determined that my 10 year old Isaac had an 
abscessed salivary gland. He had been acting punk for awhile. I thought 
he was just slowing down. But when he refused to eat I knew something 
was wrong. On the first two visits, the vets really didn't find 
anything, except for a slight elevation in white blood cells. Then I 
felt swelling under his left jaw. I waited until a vet I really like was 
on duty and took him in again - about 6 hours later. By that time I 
could see the swelling. The vet did an an ultrasound and tried to draw 
fluid from the mass. He got just a few drops and referred me to another 
vet hospital for advanced imaging. The next day I sat in their waiting 
room for 6 hours waiting for an opening in the queue for a CT scan. 
Could almost see the thing swelling before my very eyes. The vets there 
diagnosed the abscess and drew off 6-7 cc's of fluid. The surgery was 
scheduled for the next day. By the time they got in the abscess had 
burst. They cleaned out the pus and removed the infected salivary 
glands. Isaac came home the next day with a drain that was removed 5 
days later. The hole where it had been closed in another 3 days. Then 
drool started collecting in his neck. The main vet drew out 70 cc's on 
Tuesday and said he thought Isaac would need another surgery. The 
surgeon said to wait a few days to see whether the situation would 
resolve over time. I'm now taking Issac in every other day to have the 
fluid drained from his neck. The antibiotics are working and a culture 
of the fluid grew nothing. There is no infection brewing.

The vets say that abscessed salivary glands are pretty rare and it's 
hard to know what causes them. They asked about chewing on sticks and 
foxtails, neither of which are issues here. They also looked for foreign 
bodies and didn't see any, but it was a mess in his neck and they could 
have missed them. The amazing thing is that within 48 hours the abscess 
went from undetectable to huge.

The good news is that Isaac is otherwise healthy and recovering well 
from the surgery. The big gun antibiotics messed with his stomach and at 
first he didn't want to eat. It took a bit of trial and error and a 
planned drug holiday to get his stomach settled down, but once we 
figured it out, Isaac started eating again and he's been recovering 
nicely - except for the saliva flowing into his neck.

So now we drain and wait. If anyone needs drool, we've got plenty to 
spare. Here we are chanting NO DROOL, NO DROOL, NO DROOL.

Rosemary and
Isaac (10), his half sister Dinah (8), her daughter Hilary(5), and 
Hilary's kids - Spencer, Regina, and Esther (15 months)