Alayne took three of the animals to the vet today — blind Penny, old deaf Pappy and blind Turtle. I took these photos this afternoon just before Alayne left for Helena with them.
Penny has a growth on her chest, kind of a weird lump hanging loosely under her skin. It didn’t feel like a routine fatty tumor. Soon after she arrived here from a California shelter we had to have a mast cell tumor removed from her chest. The operation was a success, but of course we always worry about these things coming back. So when we discovered the growth, it was one of those "uh oh" moments.
Our dear old German Shepherd Pappy has a skin mass on one leg that he has licked and licked until he’s become almost obsessive about it. It’s benign and our vets have looked at it before. But he’s been working at it so much recently it’s really become rather, um, gross. Now we have to put a cone on Pappy to keep him from licking it. Of course, that makes him a bit grumpy.
Once the camera came out, so too did Bailey the miniature Dachshund, who LOVES to have his photo taken (really!). So as soon as he heard me start taking photos of Pappy, Bailey came scurrying over from the other side of the living room. First he posed right next to Pappy’s head (photo came out too blurry to use), then — realizing Pappy isn’t wild about having other dogs in his face — he hopped over to the other bed to pose.
Finally there was blind Turtle, who needed to have her stitches removed following her eye surgery and also to get a T4 thyroid test. We’ve noticed she’s been losing weight, even though she seems to have a normal appetite. We hope that’s as simple a problem as being hyperthyroid and not something more worrisome.
(Click on photos for larger image.)
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