Quote Originally Posted by K9soul
I was in class with Raven this morning and she was getting worn out, she started panting and was looking up at me when I noticed something wrong in her mouth. It looked like a fleshy pink growth or abscess on the floor of her mouth that extended between her lower canine and front teeth. It looks alarmingly big to me for being in her mouth, I am not sure how long it has been there as she usually has her mouth closed and when I check her teeth she generally closes her mouth and I look along the outside.

I already have a vet appointment coming up Thursday afternoon because she was getting her lyme vaccination and the other two are getting their rabies. My vet is out of town at a conference until Thursday when he will be back in the office.

She doesn't seem to have any pain or reluctance in eating or chewing or playing, but earlier when she was playing with a ball outside I noticed a bit of blood on it and when I looked at it again it had some pinprick type blood spots on it (probably irritated from carrying the ball around). I just feel really anxious about it. She is only 6 months old and has very healthy teeth and gums, I'm not quite sure what this is and what has caused it.

I guess I was wondering if anyone had seen anything like this before. I'm anxious that I can't get it looked at until Thursday but I guess I will keep a close eye on it and if need be take her to the substitute vet as an emergency, but I don't think it's at that level right now. I'm just really fretting and worrying about this. (The "brown" on the lower part of her front teeth is a bit of leaf, she had been playing in the yard with a tennis ball)







Nasty looking little thingy. If you haven't already, you might want to examine the mouth, and under the tongue for any other growths. Obviously the absence of other growths is a positive sign.

Oral cancers tend to occur in much older dogs. That's not to say they can not occur in puppies, but it's extremely rare. The most common oral growth in dogs is focal fibrous hyperplasia - which translates to hyper accelerated growth of the connective gum tissue in a localized location.

The chances are the Vet will ... punt, and refer you to an oral surgeon. The surgeon will remove excess gingival tissue and contour the remaining gingiva. A sample will be sent off to Pathology to confirm its benign, and an Xray will be taken as another safety precaution that there is no evidence of bone infiltration.

If the dog was geriatric, losing weight, anorexia, and lethargic, then cancer would be more of a worry. Chances are high the growth is benign in junior.