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Beyond the Bumps: Navigating Pet Health with Collaboration and Compassion

In this insightful article, we explore the journey of Molly Green, highlighting the importance of early detection, collaborative veterinary care, and tailored treatment plans in ensuring the well-being of cherished pets.

As our pets get older, we usually start to notice lumps and bumps starting to pop up. Some of these are benign, and we can leave them be. However, sometimes we want to remove them, to make sure that they do not cause more issues later down the line. Molly Green was one of these cases. She has been a regular in the surgery, and recently came in for a dental. She is always so happy to come in for strokes and cuddles.

During her dental a small lump was found on her lip, however it was small, so we decided to monitor how it progressed. When pets are first brought in with lumps, we first want to find out what type of mass they are. We do this in the first instance by putting a needle into the lump and removing some of the cells. These are put on a slide and sent to the lab to be looked at. They can then give us an idea of the type of growth that it is. Molly was brought back in a few weeks later because the lump was getting larger, so we did exactly this.

The results came back from the lab as a malignant tumour known as a carcinoma. We decided we needed to remove it. However, because of its location I decided to talk to Martin Law, our surgeon, who was able to plan a surgery which not only remove the entire lump, but also produced a good aesthetic outcome. This is a fitting example of how having a broad range of different vets, with different specialities can help us to get the best outcome for patients. We can collaborate and discuss cases to ensure that our collective knowledge is used to gain the correct diagnosis and treatment plan, then continue to execute this plan with highly qualified specialist staff including vets and nurses with specific specialist qualifications.

Durning the surgery to remove the lump we also took samples of the local lymph nodes. This can tell us whether the initial lump has started to metastasise to other parts of the body. We do this to decide whether Molly needed to undergo more treatment post operatively such as chemotherapy. Thankfully, the lab results showed that the lump had been removed completely, and there were no signs of metastasis to the lymph nodes. Allowing us to say that there is a good possibility that we have completely removed all the cancerous cells from the body, and no more treatment was necessary. This was a happy outcome for Molly and her owners, hopefully allowing her plenty more happy, exciting visits to us in the future.

- Vet Adam 

At Shepton and Wells Vets, every success story reinforces ours and pet owners dedication to the well-being of your pets. Molly's journey exemplifies the impact of early intervention and the collaborative efforts of a diverse veterinary team. As the owers and us continue to provide care, we look forward to telling you more tales of triumph and of cherished moments with your furry family members.