The vet said that the swelling around Petal’s eye was an inflammation and not a tumor. The vet said the inflammation was painful, so that could explain why Petal was a little subdued yesterday.
However what was really significant is that she has leishmania and NOT lymphoma. If we didn’t think that she had lymphoma then we’d have been pretty devastated by the diagnoses of leishmania as it can be a killer disease, however dogs can get better from this whereas lymphoma is fatal. The symptons are apparently identical, so they said they were testing for lymphoma and I think that we must have assumed that, later when we went back to get Petal and they gave us the treatment, that what they were treating was the lymphoma they’d said they’d tested for. And from then on we were hearing ‘lymphoma’ instead of leishmania. So while it is bad, it is not as bad as we had thought.
Anyway, the lumps are swellings and not tumors. She has anemia and her kidneys are struggling – however if she was a young dog she would have a very good chance of recovering, but in an older dog the chances are reduced, however she does have a chance. I guess when they were describing the symptoms of kidney failure it was so we knew what to look for, not saying that it was 100% going to happen.
I am so glad that the swelling around her eyes is an inflammation and not a tumor. She’s eating well (very well for Petal who has never been a bit eater) which is a good sign. And we’re giving her chicken liver to help her anemia.