This summer Bell decided she was bored so she started growing tumors on her ear. One large one on the under side and two smaller ones on the outside....all on the same ear.
Of course I had to have them tested....terrified it was cancer. I started imagining what she'd look like with half her ear taken off.
The tests came back negative for cancer! The tumors are called Histiocytoma and turns out they are very common in Labs. Bell and Nick are Lab crossed with some kind of unidentified Hound. As you can see in the last picture here, they are itchy and Bell has been digging at them quite a bit. I've spent a great deal of time cleaning them with hydrogen peroxide and removing dead tissue; then coating them in an antibiotic ointment and having her sit in her pen for a half hour. (Bell thinks she can't shake her head in her pen....don't know why but it works for me!)
And the result is that they are going away just as the Vet told me they would. She said they usually stick around for about 3 months and then start going away. In addition to having to prevent them from getting infected I also added Parsley to my dogs daily food. It's supposed to inhibit tumors in dogs....I figured it couldn't hurt.
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