Dear Colleagues,

I persuaded the owners of Taipie – a 6-year-old Staffie x Labrador neutered bitch – to have her missing teeth radiographed last year [05/2015] when she was coming in to have a hindleg radiographed.

Brett’s Veterinary Dental Image Library is excellent for informing clients about the need to radiograph missing teeth.

The radiographs demonstrated that there was an area of radiolucency around the teeth. Unfortunately, the dog was lost to follow up until earlier this year when the owner brought her in with an intraoral mass at the site.

Further radiographs revealed that the radiolucency had worsened. FNAB of the mass demonstrated clusters of mesenchymal cells, and histopathology revealed that the mass was an undifferentiated high grade sarcoma.

Whilst the dog was seen by an oncologist the owners decided not to put her through a hemimandibulectomy and she was euthanased a few weeks later.

Please can colleagues let me know how they would have obtained samples from the site last May to maximise their chances of reaching a definitive diagnosis.

As ever, thank you very much for your help.

David