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A puppy has a large neck abscess
An old dog has a large neck abscess
Dr
Sing Kong Yuen, BVMS (Glasgow), MRCVS
Case reported: 6 March, 2010
Updated:
18 June, 2011
It is not wise to perform immediate surgery on an
acutely inflamed abscess that has not "ripened."
Puppies under 3 months of age are said to be high
anaesthetic risk.
In this 5-month-old Maltese, I gave the puppy an
antibiotic and anti-inflammatory injection. After
2 weeks, the abscess had reduced by 50%, now
becoming 1cm x 1.5cm. The owners remembered to
return for surgical excision of this encapsulated
abscess, which I thought was an embedded microchip
with infection in the subcutaneous area.
ANAESTHESIA I used isoflurane gas by mask and intubate.
This is the safest method although there is a bit
of struggling during the initial stages. The puppy
woke up within 1 minute at the termination of the
gas, making some noises. No ill effects. What the
owner wanted was a live puppy and this was the
outcome.
SURGERY
There are 2 approaches.
1). Excise the whole abscess including the skin.
That would leave a big gap. I had done such a
procedure before and needed to pull skin from
surrounding areas. This resulted in a much bigger
stitched area.
2). In this case, the skin was not inflamed and I
used scissors to undermine the skin above the
encapsulated abscess and took the abscess out
intact. However, there were micro-abscesses in the
subcutaneous fat. These were excised, resulting in
some bleeding. Check carefully for any more
abscesses. A neck bandage stopped all bleeding.
The puppy went home within 1 hour. No problems.
MICROCHIP. Surprisingly, no microchip was
present in the encapsulated abscess. This showed
that a vet should not make instant diagnosis. I
had told the owner that this could be a microchip
abscess with a microchip inside. After removing
the abscess, the scanner still revealed the
microchip number somewhere in the neck region.
BE
KIND TO PETS - Get abscesses and swellings treated promptly
For more canine case studies, goto:
Dogs
To make an appointment for your puppy:
e-mail
judy@toapayohvets.com
tel: +65 9668-6469, 6254-3326
Abscesses can
be present in older dogs
too. See a case in 2011 at:
BE KIND TO DOGS & CATS ---
BIG LUMPS UNDER THE SKIN MAY
BE ABSCESSES OR TUMOURS.
SEEK EARLY VETERINARY
TREATMENT.
More case studies, goto:
Cats or
Dogs
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