Veneral Tumor in Dogs?

One interesting nature about dogs is that unlike human, they do not simply mate to serve their "needs". The female only allows the male to breed twice a year during heats. And, because of this, they rarely get diseases transmitted through copulation. One exception is the Transmissible Venereal Tumor or TVT. The word venereal itself described the mode of transmission of this disease, but in actual case, the disease can be transmitted through contact as some dogs might have the tumor growing on the nose (transmitted when they lick the tumor affected parts).

TVT was first described by Russian vet M.A. Novinsky (1841–1914) in 1876 when he successfully demonstrated that the tumor could be transmitted from one dog to another by infecting them with the tumor cells. In fact, it is very easy to be transmitted.

In our practice, we have successfully treated dogs (male & female) with TVT. Chemotherapy is very effective against TVT. Some people might use radiation or surgery but chances are the tumor will grows back again.

Very easy to spot the tumor which grows outward from the vagina. Most of the time, the owner will first complaint of bleeding from the hind. I have taken photos from the male dog's but forgot where did I saved them. Anyway, in males, the tumor will grow on the penis and the inner part of the prepuce. You have to actually pull the prepuce back to reveal the cauliflower like tumor in the inner penis. Normally, there will be blood dripping from the prepucial opening and owner may misunderstood this as blood in the urine.

The treatment is very simple, safe and effective if done correctly. Any chemotherapy drug is very dangerous and must be handled by trained veterinarian. In fact, some of them can cause your skin to slough if in contact with your skin. The photo above showed the same dog after the first chemotherapy. The tumor started to shrink just after one treatment but it's not enough to initiate only one treatment. It has to be a series of treatment depending on what drugs to be used.

There you have it! Complete recovery of the dog from the tumor after the third chemotherapy. Actually, this dog was given four chemotherapy session in order to complete the series of chemotherapy treatment designed for her.

In the male dogs, the tumor almost always occurs in the inner part of the penis. It can easily be seen once you pull the prepuce back until the end of the penis. The structure is something like a cauliflower usually with some bleeding. The most obvious sign to look for in a male dog with TVT is dripping of blood from the preputial opening.

A Cat With A Heart, Indeed!

Have you seen a cat with its heart outside the body?!! Well, tada..... here it is. First time in the blogsphere. You can't find this anywhere else, exclusively here only. What's the chance of getting a heart shape on your skin? I can't even imagine the probability.

Corneal Ulcer In Dogs.

Today, I'm going to talk about corneal ulcers, especially in dogs. Not that cats do not get corneal ulcers, but, 80% of the cases I've seen so far happened in dogs. The causes of corneal ulcers? Well, the most common one is due to scratching either during fights, or the dog's been scratching the eye due to irritations. This happens mostly in those small breed dogs with flat face and big, bulging and protruding eye balls, e.g. shih tzu, pekingese and pugs. And, we do get lots of corneal ulcer cases, at least, I mean at least 2 to 3 cases a month. Some of them involved only the corneal surface. And, some of them got worst and the corneal sometimes ruptured, releasing the membrane underneath it (what we called the descemet's membrane which was named after the French physician Jean Descemet). When this happened, you could actually see the membrane bulging out from the cornea. This is what we terms as descematocoel.

In this photo, the ulcer is right in the middle of the eye. Sometimes, we could estimate the age of the ulcer by knowing the process of ulcer formation although it is not very accurate.

This is another Shih Tzu with a corneal ulcer in the middle of the left eye. The ulcer was not too bad compared to the one above. Sometimes, we just give the owner eye ointment and send the dog home. But, in severe cases, we have to conduct a surgery to pull the third eyelid of the dog to cover the unhealing ulcer so that the ulcer will be protected and have time to recover.

This is what we call a third eyelid flap whereby the third eyelid is pulled to cover the eye and temporarily suturd to the upper eyelid. The flap may have to be in place like that for up to 2 weeks. After 2 weeks, we'll have to release the flap and check the ulcer again. If everything turns out to be fine, then, the flap is removed.

Below is the ulcer after the removal of the 3rd eyeli flap. The ulcer is healing nicely and it clearity of the cornea it becomes normal once the ulcer has completely healed in another 1 to 2 weeks' time.

The most serious problem with unhealing corneal ulcers is uninviting bacterial infections. Some bacteria can produce a type of enzyme that prevents or melt the corneal. This would leads to unhealing ulcer. A much more major surgery have to be done to correct this condition.

Keep on blogging, Dr. Kenny

A friend of mine actually read my blog the other day. He was amazed with the contents as he said my blog is very informative and it's hard to get information straight from a vet coupled with real life photos. He asked me to continue blogging as my blog has a potential to attract readers, especially the pet owners. My writings might one day help somebody's pet, he said. Well, I must confess. I'm a bit lazy to write especially after busy and hectic days. Nevertheless,I'll do my best to entertain my readers.