<html><HEAD><LINK media=all href="/netmail/static/deg/css/wysiwyg-3933289048.css" type=text/css rel=stylesheet>
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16890" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV>A week ago, I had intended to take Abner to the ASPCA vets in Manhattan to have someone look at the cancerous pilomatrixoma on his penis, but logistics got in the way. So instead I brought him to the local surgeon who had previously done surgery on him.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Long story short, it looks as if we have gone about as far as we can go with surgery. We could spend a lot of money and end up with the lumps coming back quickly. About the best we could hope for would be to remove his whole penis and the area around it and maybe get six months--or maybe not even that. With the rate that it's been growing so far, I doubt we'd get such a long time. A more limited surgery would perhaps give him a month or two (or maybe not). It seems that the cancer is so invasive that it's very likely that it would pop up again swiftly. We had surgery done in March, and by October he's got a very large set of lumps again. The surgeon suspects that the cancer cells are affecting an extended area, and even if he got very clean margins, some of it would be beyond the area he'd be cutting, which means it would just come back again a little farther off.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>On top of the thyroid and back problems, Abner also seems to have developed a heart murmur.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The surgeon is not recommending that we do surgery. Eventually the lumpy area will start to open up, and then we will be facing putting Abner down. Until that time comes, the surgeon is recommending that we use some sort of protection for his penile area, possibly made from neoprene. It will have to surround Abner's waist area and allow room for his penis to do its thing while still protecting the lumpy area.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I went online to the site he'd recommended, Doggleggs, but they do not seem to carry anything like that--most of their products are leg related, as you might expect from the name. So I am wondering if anyone on the Drool has experience with anything like this and knows of a site where I might get such a thing.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Alternatively, I am also open to trying to make something myself. I am a pretty skilled seamstress, but I have yet to get a handle on just how I would do this. If anyone has advice, I am open to it.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If worse comes to worst, I will contact Doggleggs and see if they can do a custom job, but I just can't imagine trying to adequately explain, measure, and so on. At least if I do it at home and it does not fit, I can make adjustments.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>It goes without saying that I am very upset. Abner has not been our easiest hound, but he still has a large place in my heart. Any free drool for slow growth of this thing would be more than welcome.</DIV>
<DIV>Pam, food slave to the Dashing Bassets</DIV>
<DIV><BR> </DIV></BODY></html>