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Furunculosis
By ella | August 9, 2006
Defa, my beloved springer spaniel - and most definitely not the sh*t-eating, wee-drinking one - has another large lump. Last time she had a lump removed the vet told me there was an outside possibility that she had diverticulitis. She’s young and there’s no indication it’s cancer, but, here, it could be something just as bad! Or at least that’s how I remembered it being that it was about two weeks after the baby was born and I was a walking zombie.
On Sunday, the day following the discovery of the new lump, we went to a big family party. I hadn’t seen many of my cousins for three or four years. From there being only one baby of the New Generation four years ago (Harry, who as the first grandchild, stole the show completely) there are now ten! Although as three are mine and two are my sister’s I guess we are the ones who should be keeping our legs crossed a bit more in future. It was great fun to catch up with everyone and have everyone admire my handsome boys and my incredibly beautiful baby. I mean, if you don’t know what to say to me, you just have to admire my baby and I’ll do the human equivalent of rolling over and letting you tickle my tummy. Or, even better, I may just roll over and let you tickle my tummy.
Over lunch (a hog roast, but although I couldn’t bring myself to look at the pig being carved up I loved the food - what hipocrisy!) I was talking with my uncle explaining that the vet had said that if the lump returned, she probably had diverticulitis and that this was very serious, most likely terminal. Looking slightly alarmed he practically spat his food at me, ‘but I have diverticulitis!’ I assured him that his was almost certainly not terminal as the doctor probably would have told him if it was and that, also, I probably, even quite likely, had the disease wrong. Of course I had it wrong: it was Furunculosis, not Diverticulitis. So unless you have a Furuncle, Uncle, you are probably in the clear.
Sadly, canine anal furunculosis does not have a good prognosis, not least because vets are not sure really what causes it or how to treat it successfully. When I took her to the vet on Monday, I was given the ‘prepare for the worst’ speech. It is rare in Springer Spaniels but she told me she had a case in a springer just six months ago.
Defa is my little dog that loves her ball, her food and her ball some more. We always joked that when she died we would bury her with her ball. (And maybe a 30kg bag of her food because she is a greedy spaniel after all.)
Now it’s not a joke, just an unspoken thought.
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