After 5 days, I again contacted the regular vet to see about how long to continue the antihistamines, the anti-inflammatory were only for 5 days. There was no change and I wondered who should do a recheck and when? Regular vet advised a return to emergency vet as she had still not received anything from emergency vet on the case.
I returned to the emergency vet who collaborated with a couple of "referral only" surgery vets located in a trauma and surgery center next door to the emergency vet's office. Their conclusion was that the swelling is a mass that I have missed and only now discovered and that the antibiotics are unnecessary because her white blood cell count is normal. I have continued the antibiotics because it just seems strange to me that there was a tick smack dab in the middle of the swollen area and since I have the medicine already, it might as well be utilized for it's intended purpose.
The recommendation is that I wait a couple of weeks and then have a surgical biopsy conducted using one of the board certified vets at the referral center. A friend from the samoyed club has referred me to a practice about 30 to 45 minutes away that is a combination of vets with a variety of specialties including oncology. So this is likely someone of similar or perhaps superior training and experience with removing masses from dog's back legs.
Every test they have run so far has come back perfectly normal, blood work, x-ray, 4 needle biopsies. There is no pain nor fever associated with the swelling. I know there can be benign masses and I have to say that I am reluctant to go the surgical route when I have yet to be shown any evidence of some disease process at play. Other than the swelling of the leg of course. I have been told that a biopsy won't just be a little take part of the mass or muscle for testing. That if there is a mass, it will be removed in its entirety if possible to avoid having to go back and do it all again. Which makes sense. I have also been told that I want to go with a board certified surgeon because of the large number of nerves and the blood vessel being right on top of the muscle, and "you never know what they will find once they get in there."
OH has been doing internet research.
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While I certainly want to remove something such as a cancer, I don't want to remove something unnecessarily that isn't a cancer. If this were your dog, what would you want to know before scheduling surgery? If this were your dog, would you have scheduled surgery already?