[Dailydrool] Need Amputation Advice!

[Celine Rupka]

Hi Fellow Droolers!

I'm looking to see if anyone has been through this situation with  
their fur-babies.  My baby, Mathilda (4-years) is prone to cysts, as  
some of our bassets are.  I have had a few of them biopsied, and they  
have always come back benign (usually as hybrid follicular cysts.)   
Most of the time, they come and go, and every once and a while, one  
will rupture, we head to the vets to have it debrided and to get a run  
of antibiotics while it heals.  For about a year now, she has had one  
about halfway down her tail.  I noticed when I headed off to work a  
little over three weeks ago that it was getting larger.  By the time I  
got home, it had "blown up" and was seeping its wonderful blood/pus  
combination.  We headed off to the vet for the usual.  However, since  
this was a little larger, the vet made another incision to completely  
clean it out and bandaged it up.  We got a course of antibiotics and  
instructions to change the bandage every couple of days.

So... I have been faithfully changing the dressing every other day but  
the area just isn't healing.  There is generally blood and even little  
bits of either tissue or pus on the bandage.  She went in for a check  
at the one week and two week marks, it appeared to be getting a bit  
better, but as soon as you went to change the bandage, it would bleed  
a bit.  Mathilda doesn't fuss with the tail, still wags it like  
normal... only shows interest in it when I am changing the dressing.

Today, I took her in again to the vet, as we are now over three weeks  
with this.  She checked it out and said there now seems to be some  
tissue forming again.  Due to the fact that it isn't healing, she has  
recommended that we proceed with a partial tail amputation.  She says  
there just isn't enough tissue on the tail in the area that she can  
get clear enough margins around the growth and still have enough skin  
to suture the wound together.  Also, she feels there is a very large  
chance that this growth will reoccur if we try to go that route.  With  
the amputation, she said the problem area will be completely removed.

Has anyone had any experience with this sort of growth?  Or amputation  
of the tail in general?  I am fully aware that something needs to be  
done, however, amputation is a major thing!  I am trying to get in  
contact with her dermatologist to have her take a look at the area  
(and give me her opinion,) but she travels a fair bit, so I may be out  
of luck with that.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Celine
and Mathilda (...don't let them chop my tail off Mom!!!)
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