City of Angels - Initial Visit

Today was Lulu's first visit to City of Angels Veterinary Specialty Center to see Dr. Carey.

After a quick examination on the table, Dr. Carey immediately recommended that we do another aspirate of the swollen area to take a look at the cells and figure out exactly what is causing that lump. (Since they did not find anything other than "blood" at VCA Lakewood) We left Lulu there for 30 minutes while Dr. Carey used a needle to extract cells from the front of her muzzle and analyze them under a microscope.

When we returned we were met with bad news: she had found what looked to be a mast cell tumor on the muzzle as well as mast cells passing through two of the lymph nodes on Lulu's right side. She immediately recommended further testing, including sending the cells for a complete cytology report, aspirating the spleen and the liver, an x-ray of the chest and an abdominal ultrasound to quickly assess whether the cancer has spread.

She also estimated Lulu's mast cell tumor to be a stage 2, but acting like an aggressive stage 3 because of the location. Also, because of the location, she recommended that we think about radiation therapy instead of surgery, which is roughly twice the price. Being right at the tip of her nose/muzzle it would be extremely intrusive to try to remove the tumor with surgery since they like to take out an additional 2cm radius of the tissue around the tumor. They'd have to remove about half of her muzzle, leaving behind open nostrils, similar to a pig's. (She actually used that analogy and I thought that might be fitting, seeing as to what a piggy Lulu has been lately.)

We left Lulu at the vet for the remainder of the day for testing and made an appointment to meet Dr. Lyons, the radiation oncologist, the next day.

When we picked up Lulu, they let us know that the x-ray and ultrasound came out clear but we'd have to wait until the next day for the full cytology reports on the lymph nodes, spleen and liver. Eek!

Today's services
Examination - Specialist Consult
Butorphanol 10mg/ml
Acepromazine Inject 10mg/ml
Dexameth So-Inj 4mg/ml
Ultrasound - Abdomen
Cytology ANTECH
Healthchek Plus IDEXX
Urinalysis IDEXX
Radiographs- Met Check
Radiograph Interpretation