I must admit to type anything on any sort of forum is really not us, but recent events have made us want to share Tia's, our 6yr old brown labs, story as when this all happened we looked for any sort of advice or help we could get and only found one other case which was in America.
Mid way through February this year we noticed that Tia wasn't quite right so kept a close eye on her. It become obvious she had trouble chewing and had started to dribble small amounts of blood, we started to try and look into her mouth, much to her disgust but after comparisons with Molly our black lab it become obvious something was very wrong, she seemed to have a growth on the underside of her tongue. You can imagine the scene, two adults sitting on the floor with two labradors trying to open one mouth and then the second to check if they look similar, very strange.
The very next day there I was with Tia, as you can imagine pulling at the lead to get into the vets, not. In we went to see James our vet who knows Tia very well. At this stage I think I must tell you a little about Tia. Firstly she has epilepsy and has from a puppy, at first she had fits around 6-8 weeks apart. As she got older they become more regular every 4 weeks almost like clockwork. We tried some medication but this seemed to effect her quite badly causing her to act as if she was drunk during exercise, after visiting James it was agreed the tablets were almost more for us than Tia, i.e. not seeing her fit, so it was easily agreed to take her off the medication.
Tia had regular fits until Molly came along, it seemed as if Molly was an instant cure as she now seems to fit 1-2 times a year.
Then came her gastro problems again more visits to the vet, then around 12 months ago she had an ear infection, back to James we went. Tia's ear drum had started to corrode and was spreading through the rest of the inner ear, the only solution was a tricky operation to remove her ear, first time this had happened at our vets. Hence her new name Tia No ear.
So back to the tongue, James checked out the mouth and was almost instant in the diagnosis of cancer, and a very aggressive type, squamous cell carcinoma. She was admitted straight away for a biopsy and to have X-rays. Later that week it was confirmed it was indeed cancer and we arranged a meeting with James. It was then discussed the best way forward, we read many things about the devastation of this type of cancer and listened to James who had found entries about dogs having tongue amputations. Our main concern was how Tia would cope with basic things such as eating, drinking, cleaning and even panting after such an op. We sat as a family and discussed for hours coming out with the solution that she had to have the chance and so in she went to have her tongue removed.
Tia was in for only a couple of days and seemed happy to be home, then began the road to recovery. We had to hand feed Tia for around 2 weeks, firstly putting her food into her mouth, then throwing her the food and encouraging her to tip her head back. She eventually started to eat her food from a plate even though its still quite messy she copes. Drinking seemed a bigger issue as she couldn't lap so we have had to give water through a syringe almost constantly since the operation................then tonight roughly eight weeks after the op she stood by the large bowl of water we have ready and started to slurp the water, we were all thrilled and even rang family to let them know. Its was a eureka moment even for Tia who hasn't stopped drinking since.
She has been to the vets very regularly and has many bad days but hopefully this story also proves that dogs will cope with extraordinary difficulties and maybe one day if someone reads this it may just be enough to give another Tia a chance. Thanks for reading.
Mid way through February this year we noticed that Tia wasn't quite right so kept a close eye on her. It become obvious she had trouble chewing and had started to dribble small amounts of blood, we started to try and look into her mouth, much to her disgust but after comparisons with Molly our black lab it become obvious something was very wrong, she seemed to have a growth on the underside of her tongue. You can imagine the scene, two adults sitting on the floor with two labradors trying to open one mouth and then the second to check if they look similar, very strange.
The very next day there I was with Tia, as you can imagine pulling at the lead to get into the vets, not. In we went to see James our vet who knows Tia very well. At this stage I think I must tell you a little about Tia. Firstly she has epilepsy and has from a puppy, at first she had fits around 6-8 weeks apart. As she got older they become more regular every 4 weeks almost like clockwork. We tried some medication but this seemed to effect her quite badly causing her to act as if she was drunk during exercise, after visiting James it was agreed the tablets were almost more for us than Tia, i.e. not seeing her fit, so it was easily agreed to take her off the medication.
Tia had regular fits until Molly came along, it seemed as if Molly was an instant cure as she now seems to fit 1-2 times a year.
Then came her gastro problems again more visits to the vet, then around 12 months ago she had an ear infection, back to James we went. Tia's ear drum had started to corrode and was spreading through the rest of the inner ear, the only solution was a tricky operation to remove her ear, first time this had happened at our vets. Hence her new name Tia No ear.
So back to the tongue, James checked out the mouth and was almost instant in the diagnosis of cancer, and a very aggressive type, squamous cell carcinoma. She was admitted straight away for a biopsy and to have X-rays. Later that week it was confirmed it was indeed cancer and we arranged a meeting with James. It was then discussed the best way forward, we read many things about the devastation of this type of cancer and listened to James who had found entries about dogs having tongue amputations. Our main concern was how Tia would cope with basic things such as eating, drinking, cleaning and even panting after such an op. We sat as a family and discussed for hours coming out with the solution that she had to have the chance and so in she went to have her tongue removed.
Tia was in for only a couple of days and seemed happy to be home, then began the road to recovery. We had to hand feed Tia for around 2 weeks, firstly putting her food into her mouth, then throwing her the food and encouraging her to tip her head back. She eventually started to eat her food from a plate even though its still quite messy she copes. Drinking seemed a bigger issue as she couldn't lap so we have had to give water through a syringe almost constantly since the operation................then tonight roughly eight weeks after the op she stood by the large bowl of water we have ready and started to slurp the water, we were all thrilled and even rang family to let them know. Its was a eureka moment even for Tia who hasn't stopped drinking since.
She has been to the vets very regularly and has many bad days but hopefully this story also proves that dogs will cope with extraordinary difficulties and maybe one day if someone reads this it may just be enough to give another Tia a chance. Thanks for reading.
