Bummed...

So I had a nice morning planned with a herping buddy and Cid. Late last night though we noticed a trail of blood around the house... Turns out Cid has a small growth on the back of one of his legs that had become ulcerated. I convinced Molly this did not necessitate a trip to the puppy emergency room (definitely could wait until the morning) but after being reminded I am not an animal doctor, we did call Uncle Lee, the family vet. He confirmed my suspicion that it is likely benign and recommended it getting checked out soon with the possibility of biopsy/excision.

So I canceled our hiking trip to take Cid to our local vet. He didn't seem to mind terribly much as he didn't know what could have been in store from him, and he enjoys visiting other puppies at the vet. As suspected, it is likely a benign tumor. It appears to be a histiocytoma, or abnormal proliferation of a certain type of cell found in the skin. They are commonly smaller than 2-3 cm, round, hairless and found on the face and limbs of young dogs. They usually regress spontaneously, but other important differential diagnoses include basal cell carcinoma, mast cell tumor and cutaneous lymphoma so having tissue for pathology isn't a bad idea. Surgical excision is usually curative and the incidence of recurrence is low.

So Cid is now scheduled for his second surgery on Mon. Shouldn't be much of a big deal and hopefully the little monster will be back in the field soon. The funny thing is the lesion is nonpainful and hasn't bothered him a bit. He would never even had noticed if we hadn't wrapped his little leg in an ace to keep him from bleeding all over the place.

Here's to a speedy recovery for my field partner!