Abscess on lower cheek

santasugar · May 5, 2014

Hello everyone, first time poster, first time Frenchie owner here. I just wanted to check in with people here to see if there is anyone with a similar experience. Sugar, 5 months old came back home from a walk with a large bump on her cheek. Being first timers we took her to the vets immediately. They said it could be a bee sting, spider bite or the like, but there is no visible sign of entry inside or outside her mouth. They gave her some benedryl and sent her home. A little later the bump was bigger, a little less then a size of a golf ball. So back to the vet we go. They give her some more benedryl and a steroid shot (not sure about that) or something, observe her for a few hours then send her home. We give her benedryl for the next few days. The bump doesn't get any smaller and maybe a little larger. We take her to our regular vet. She draws out a syringe of pus and blood from the bump and says its an abscess. We put Sugar on antibiotics and hot compresses for the next 10 days. It looked like the bump was getting smaller for the first week. Then it looked like it got larger again in the past few days. I take Sugar in for the recheck. The vet feels the bump and agrees it should be looking better at this point. This time she withdraws with a syringe of a thick yellow pus (no blood). The vet wants to open up the abscess get it cleaned out and check it for foreign objects, splinters, etc. that would be causing this abscess to continue. I'm not wild about this option and would prefer not to have her operated on, unless it was a last option. So for now we are going to get the pus cultured to see if we are using the right antibiotic and continue with the hot compress 3x a day and up the dosage of the original antibiotic by half until the culture comes back. Thanks for reading this and if you have any insight on this situation I would appreciate any feedback. -Jamie

mhuinker · May 5, 2014

Awww, poor Sugar, sorry to hear about her owie! Unfortunately, I'm no help in this department, but I'm sure someone will jump in soon and be able to put your mind to ease!

2bullymama · May 5, 2014

OUCH!!! Poor little girl.... I have no experience, but please keep us posted on what the outcome is.

Prayers it is nothing too serious and she is better soon

Cbrugs · May 5, 2014

I am no help either but I hope you get it figured out soon...poor Sugar (and you).

davidh · May 5, 2014

Poor baby girl. I would let them lance it to get that crap out of her, so she can heal up faster and not get septic. Hope she gets better soon.

santasugar · Oct 20, 2014

Hey fellow Frenchie owners, Its been a few months since the above mentioned drama, I just wanted to update in case somebody has something similar in the future. We did end up having to operate on sugars abscess. We had X-rays done and ultrasounds, with that the doc noticed a shadow but nothing positive. He was not comfortable doing the surgery because of the proximity to facial nerves and the salivary duct. SO we went to a surgery vet in Ventura CA. They did a lot of the same things and determined there was a foreign body in or near her salivary gland that was causing the abscess. They went in through her mouth and operated and indeed find a thin but stiff blade of grass (which they kept for us) that had somehow made it all the way up her salivary duct to the gland. How that happened no one knows, odds are very high that a blade of grass would even mange to find the duct entrance let alone work its way up to the gland. Chalk it up to lifes mysteries. Sugar recovered nicely and is doing well.