Home from holidays to find a depression in his dog's head.

This morning a man rang to say that he had come home from holidays to find that his dog had a large depression on one side of its head. The neighbours looking after the dog had noticed the depression but they where unsure if it was there before. I told him to bring it down to have a look. When I looked I could see that there was a large depression, it was all from muscle waste, I open the dogs mouth to find a putrid smell, and I could just see a necrotic area at the back of the jaw, the jaw itself was also quite swollen. It could either be a foreign body or a tumour. So we had to admit the dog for further investigation, Under a general anaesthetic I could open the mouth wide open a see a large necrotic area in the corner of the jaw, we took an xray a could see a large area of enlargement around the jaw bone, it confirmed what I suspected that it was a bony cancer. I told the owner and he was very upset, and decieded to have the dog euthanasied, but he did not want to stay, he went and gave the dog a last hug and left. The dog (that had been sitting quietly all day) began to howl after the owner left. We then had to euthanize the dog. A very sad story.
Michael O'Donoghue For People and pets