Paw Dog

Re: Paw Dog

Hannah Wynne Richards — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 18:25:45 GMT

Fingers crossed

Wynne

Re: Paw Dog

Iain McAllister — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 09:11:06 GMT

Update - sent the slide to a friend of mine with cytological skills and he said it was neoplasia

"No doubt about neoplasia Cannot identify the origin of the cells from the cytology but looks like a soft tissue sarcoma with nuclear disparity, clumped chromatin and multiple nucleoli. Also no infection and not much inflammation"

Anyway when I reported back to Myanmar they had already amputated due to deterioration of the open ulceration - prognosis looks fair - there certainly was no prescap enlargement when I looked at him a couple of months ago...

Re: Paw Dog

Hannah Wynne Richards — Tue, 19 May 2015 09:44:45 GMT

At least that's more hopeful than cancer.

Wynne

Re: Paw Dog

Gerry Polton — Tue, 19 May 2015 08:17:43 GMT

Hi Iain

It looks like an interdigital furunculosis to me. From what I can see of your stained photomicrographs, the specimen is pretty acellular. I don't know whether what you see might be fungal spores or perhaps a mineral of some sort. The absence of evidence of inflammatory cells makes me think of a foreign body reaction rather than a fungal granuloma. I note too that there is a smaller lesion in the interdigital space of the other forepaw, supporting the idea that this is a benign process. Of course, left long enough, an open wound like this would not stay benign forever. If the general tide of opinion matches mine, that a foreign mineral body is the inciting cause, my suggestion would be that the locals fashion a pair of boots which would prevent crystalline material from the ground penetrating the sole of the paw and creating the furunculosis reaction. Not sure whether the current lesion would eventually resolve itself. I suspect not. A boot, if tolerated, might also act as a barrier to further self-trauma. It would be nice if the lesions subsided and if they did, the carers would then be forewarned should a similar but less severe case come along in the future.

Forgive me musings if I am not seeing something obvious in these photomicrographs that someone better qualified can easily recognise.

Gerry

Re: Paw Dog

Hannah Wynne Richards — Tue, 19 May 2015 08:17:04 GMT

Poor poor dog. I really admire people who have the wonderful courage to continue trying to help animals in such discouraging circumstances. I know I couldn't cope.

Wynne