Top Veterinary Articles of the Week: Pre-Anesthetic Testing, More on Skin Masses, and more ...

Pre-Anesthetic Testing – Is It Really Necessary?
Dr. Christopher G. Byers/CriticalCareDVM

I remember that back when we were taking Jasmine to be spayed, pre-op blood test was offered as optional. It was extra money and to us that was an important criteria. We debated it a lot but at the end we just had to go with what was better and safer for Jasmine—getting the testing done. I would never subject my dog to anesthesia without pre-anesthetic testing.

Just recently I shared a story of Jack and how pre-op testing saved his life.


What does pre-anesthetic testing involve? Medical history, physical examination, blood panel and urinalysis. Coagulation profile and electrocardiography might be indicated. If your vet ever offers this as optional, don't even think twice just say yes. In fact, insist that it is done.


What Makes One Skin Mass Cancerous and Another Non-Cancerous?
Dr. Patrick Mahaney/petMD

That is a timely question for us, since just over a week ago we had two bumps we found on JD aspirated—one of them turned out being a lipoma but the other a mast cell tumor. JD had it removed on Thursday.

Not all lumps are cancerous but some of them are!

Read Dr. Patrick's article about his dog Cardiff who not only recently had surgery for cancer in his abdomen but also some of his skin masses turned out cancerous as well. Cardiff had total of nine masses, six of which were cancerous. Biopsies revealed that Cardiff had the following masses - sebaceous adenoma, nodular sebaceous gland hyperplasia, epidermal and superficial follicular hyperplasia, fibroadnexal hamartoma, plasmacytoma and malignant melanoma. Don't ever assume that just because you know what one mass on your dog is, that the other is going to be same. They weren't the same on JD and they certainly weren't the same on Cardiff.

No matter how many masses your dog might have, aspirate every single one of them.


11 Most Embarrasing Pet Potty Stories
Laura Cross/Vetstreet

This clearly isn't medical; I didn't find any more medical articles I'd want to include. So on a lighter note, see if any of these sound familiar.

Comments