Initial Misdiagnosis

In August 2010, I took Strider to our vet for a swelling in his upper gum, above his left canine tooth.  I first noticed a swelling on the outside beside his nose and thought it was a bee sting or snake bite and that it was the skin that was affected.  I looked inside his mouth and saw what looked like extra gum material on that side.  It was hard and looked exactly like gum, but there was more on that side than on the other side.  The extra material was pushing out his lip, causing it to look slightly swollen.  You can see in the pictures below that the swelling is fairly subtle.  At this point, he exhibited no other symptoms at all.

Our usual vet was not in on that day, and the vet that we saw suggested that we get a biopsy performed, just to be on the safe side.  We did that and a few days later, he called to say that the biopsy had come back as benign and showed the material to be scar tissue.  That seemed strange, but we also have a year old Golden puppy and the two dogs play fight very hard.  I speculated that Strider had gotten hit hard on the mouth while playing and that was the cause of the scar tissue.  To me, benign meant benign, and I gave it no further thought.

Over the next few months, I noticed the swelling seemed to get slightly larger, but I wasn't concerned.  We had done due diligence, gotten a biopsy done, and I felt there was no need for further concern.

In November, we returned to the vet office for the removal of a benign tumor on his eyelid that we had been monitoring, and this time we saw our usual vet, who has been in practice for over 35 years.  He took one look at Strider and knew there was a problem.

His summer cut is just growing out.

Later Summer 2010