My Lumpy Nosed Bear

AP here:
Exactly three weeks ago Tonka and I went to see Dr. Roa. In getting him out of the truck I accidentally bumped his head on the back of the truck. Once inside the waiting area Tonka's Aunt Gina came to see him and remarked that he had a knot on his nose right at the bridge. I assumed that it was from our less than graceful exit from the truck. Three weeks later the knot is still there and this past Saturday Tonka got sick. Now my boy hardly ever throws up and I can count the times on two hands that he has thrown up in the past 5 years so off to GAVH we went.

 Dr. Gerity took a look at him and other than the fact that he is definitely having an allergic reaction to something causing his feet to itch and his fur to stain the only thing that could be upsetting him would be some of his medication.  We discussed stopping some of the meds and putting him on something to settle and coat his stomach and then she turned her attention to his lump. Now Tonka has not been able to breathe right out of the right side of his nose since April so the thinking has been that perhaps there is a polyp or tumor that is blocking the passage. The presence of the lump could be whatever is in there pushing up and trying to find a way out, so basically coming up through the bone. Cancer nasal tumors destroy bone and can erode a hole out. The other disturbing trend lately is whenever he stands in his wheels his tongue turns a dark pink. This could be due to something occluding blood flow as well.

The thought of this of course was very upsetting so I made an appointment with internal medicine and Dr. Klaser to take a look and biopsy it. We discussed the possibility of being able to do a needle biopsy instead of a rhinoscopy but to be prepared for that if the lump was too hard to use a needle. A needle aspirate allows a Dr to take a small sample to look at. It is less invasive then a surgical biopsy and there is no anesthesia involved. Anesthesia always involves some risk and recovery time. We were lucky and Dr. Klaser found a softer spot on the lump to do the needle aspirate.

At first glance it appears to consist of mostly cyst cells but some cells were grouped together that looked a little off so we will wait for the final report from IDEXX which should be back in a few days.  So once again in looking for a quick and neat answer to a Tonka problem - well its just not happening. I am relieved that it wasn't a definitive nasty tumor full of cancer cells as that would have shortened our remaining time together dramatically. I am still at a loss about his breathing problem and at this point he basically has very little air flow in the right nostril at all. It doesn't appear that this lump is the cause but again we shall wait for the report to come back.

Holding on to hope......

and T Man sticking out his tongue to Cancer!