Sam is Frodo's brother and uncle to the new boys. About a month ago I noticed a couple of hard lumps under his armpits, like a couple of small jelly beans in size and shape. I was advised that it was his lymph nodes that were swollen and that hopefully it was just a mild generalised infection that should clear up, but to keep an eye on him. About a week later he still wasn't any better so I booked him in to see the vet. She suggested a needle biopsy on his lymph nodes to see what was happening.
I received a call from the vet the following day to say that the results were in and that it looked like it was probably lymphoma (cancer of the lymphatic system), although it could also still be an infection and to just monitor him for the time being to see if it got any worse or began to clear up. If it didn't clear up or if Sam started to lose weight then she was willing to try him on a course of steroids.
A few days ago Sam started to look in a bad way. All of the lymph nodes were severely swollen, particularly around the head. They were starting to make the poor boy's eyes bulge (he looked like he was permanently boggling) and he was having difficulty cleaning himself as he couldn't get his arms past them to clean his head. He also started to get a little weak in his back legs. I made an appointment with the vet so that he could start on the steroids to see if it would help. He started taking them on Thursday evening.
Here is how Sam looked Thursday evening:
Thankfully it looks like the steroids are helping to reduce the swollen lymph nodes already.
Here is how Sam looks this morning:
As the swellings either side of his jaw are going down Sam is able to wash himself again, although I'm helping him with that for now. Unfortunately it looks like Sam may be losing the use of his back legs. At the moment I'm helping Sam to keep himself clean "down below" and cleaning his ears out for him as he'd usually do that with his back leg.
Fingers crossed, it looks like we may be able to at least control the symptoms for a while. My vet said that if the steroids worked then she was happy to put Sam on a repeat prescription.