A Photo Journey of Jezebel's Snout

If you read my blog, regularly, you have seen these pictures, before. Mainly for my own curiosity, I put together a bunch of her pictures since she was diagnosed with melanoma and received treatment. It interested me how her muzzle was doing so well, then all of a sudden, it just went south. Now it is coming back. Since it interested me, I thought you might also be interested. So here are pictures, beginning in July, of how she has looked.

Here she is right before we discovered the growth in her right nostril.


In late June, Jezebel developed a watery right eye and we took her to the vet. They found nothing. We noticed the growth in her right nostriil on the Fourth of July and took her straight to the surgeon for removal. We were in Oklahoma, at the time, and got the pathology report the next week. She went to the oncologist back east on July 14th. They confirmed melanoma, shaved her muzzle and did a CT scan. Here is how she looked on the way home following the CT scan on July 15th:


Melanoma is an extremely aggressive cancer and until about two years ago, less than 10% of dogs so diagnosed survived a year. The CT scan revealed a small tumor at the tip of her nose along the top. It was inoperable due to the size and location, which meant that she had to have radiation treatment. In addition, she was to be given a series of vaccines that have been helpful for many dogs. The vaccine is new but has been instumental in helping many dogs surpass the previous death rate of 90% within a year. Only time will tell if she will be one of the ones helped.

Jezebel had her first radiation treatment to the muzzle on July 17th. Here are a few pictures taken over the next few days:



Here she is on July 20th:


I took this picture on July 21st:


She had her second radiation treatment on July 24th. Here she is, the next day:


Here is how she looked on July 27th:


I think she looks pretty good. She didn't seem to be bothered by the radiation treatment and her hair was growing back in.

They told us that her hair might begin to fall out after her third or fourth radiation treatment. She had her third radiation treatment on July 31st:


Jezebel had quite a bit of congestion and a runny nose during this time but it did not really seem to bother her much more than that. I took this picture on August 3rd:


Jezebel on August 5th:



Her final radiation treatment was on August 7th. I took this picture, that day:


We started seeing a lot of pigment changes and her nose started changing color and looking dried out.

Here is a picture taken on August 16th:


Things started to look kind of bad for Jezebel during the third week of August. her muzzle hair fell out and the pigment on her nose seemed to swirl and change every couple of hours. Her snout swelled and the skin got tight and swollen looking. Poor thing looked like her nose was a sausage. She lost all the hair on the black skin around her nose and above it along the muzzle.

August 22nd:

August 28th:


It was really starting to look pretty bad - maybe the worst of the whole ordeal.
Here is another from August 28th:


September 1st:


September 6th:


Beginning the second week of September, the swelling started to go down pretty rapidly. Here is a picture I took on September 8th:


September 9th:


September 14th:


September 16th:


September 20th:


During the third week of September, her hair began making a reappearance. Here is a picture taken on September 24th:


Jezebel when back for a follow-up visit to the vet on September 25th and they said she was really looking great.
Here is another picture taken on September 29th:


For the past few days her hair has been growing like wildfire. We hope it will all be back in a matter of a few weeks. Here is the latest picture, taken on October 2nd: