<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Hi Fellow Droolers!</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">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.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">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.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">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.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">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.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Celine</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">and Mathilda (...don't let them chop my tail off Mom!!!)</span></div></body></html>