The Wonder Husky is recovering from her own surgery today. Yes, I take my dog to the vet. Embarassing, but true. With my own pets, other than the cats, my clinical expertise flies out the window, and I become a worried dog and horse mother.
Yesterday, while walking with Tipper, I noticed a swelling under her jaw. Oh no, I panicked. She’s twelve-she’s a cancer dog. With what Earl has been going through with a cancer scare, I thought Tipper had deadly cancer.
Upon returning home from an abbreviated walk, I palpated all her lymph nodes and looked in her mouth. The nodes were normal. Her mouth was gross. Her right upper carnassial tooth, the really big one in the back, was red, coated with tarter and calculus. It was one nasty-looking tooth. I watched the swelling increase during the day, so the thought of lymphoma went deeper into the recesses of my brain. Tip has always had teeth problems. I check them regularly, and clean them at home. She gets a regular dental at least annually. This one just got away from me.
Tipper got a shot of penicillin and some ‘peanut butter aspirin’ last night. Today at the clinic, her bloodwork was normal, the dental x-ray of her tooth showed a giant abscess, and a needle aspirate of a lymph node was normal. She’s not a cancer dog.
Tip will come home with clean teeth, and an extraction of the largest tooth in her mouth. Ouch! It’s doggie painkillers and antibiotics for a few days for my love dog.
What clued me in yesterday was that the swelling increased practically as I watched. She became the facial Elephant Dog. On Sunday, there’s not much to do but wait until the next morning.
Tipper loved eating four cans of cat food hand fed from a tongue depressor. She first learned that in my cat clinic. One of my employees, Manda, actually taught Tipper to drink a Slurpee from a straw. Manda would let Tip in the clinic when no patients were around. So much for dog smells in a feline-exclusive practice!
I’m not a big fan of canned food except for patients that have difficulty eating. In the store, there were all these flavors such as “sliced roast beef with baby carrots,” and “chicken stew with organic gravy.” Balderdash! The labels are for humans. We read the labels, and we like roast beef. All the dog cares is that the food stinks.
I’ll go pick up the Wonder Husky later. Being a Husky, I imagine she will whine all day. They do that. Even a basic physical is an exercise in vocal agony for the practitioner. Yeah, it’s a Husky, all right. Wwwwooooooo! Who cures tinnitus, anyway? I’ve had it for years.