Fear and loathing

I had that sinking feeling in my gut all day.  I had four dogs with vet appointments, at two different vets and two different times.  Flirt was really just along for a weigh in, and that was good news.  She had picked up 6 pounds in the past week and was now up to 98 pounds.  She's certainly moving in the right direction and after another week we'll schedule the surgery to remove that fatty tumor from her belly. 

Shadow weighed in at a whopping 85 pounds!  He's on a diet although he's not too happy about it.  He had his vaccines and a heartworm test and is good to go. 

The dread I was feeling all day was due to my 5:00 p.m. appointment with Bremo and Gypsy.  I was brushing Bremo yesterday and realized how dull and dry his coat had become and how scaley his skin was.  Bremo will be 10 years old in March and he's looking like an old man.  He gets a good dose of fish oil and vitamin E, but we may have to try something else in his diet to get back that youthful shiny coat.  There was no sign of an infection but we did some blood work to check his thyroid.  And I need to give him a bath, probably tomorrow.  That should be interesting.  He's 104 pounds and I doubt that he will step into the tub for me.  I'm not even sure he will come upstairs on his own.

I brought Gypsy in after they were finished with Bremo.  Her rear end is very weak, her tail drags the ground a bit, and she sometimes stumbles.  The front end isn't that much better, she's had arthritis in her front elbow joints for years and she has difficulty climbing even the two steps to our house with them.  To top it off, I discovered a nasty looking lesion on her yesterday and I was scared that they were going to tell me it was cancerous. 

Well, the lesion was just a burst cyst, and the vet pulled out the nasty bits, leaving a hole in her but a clean one that should heal up.  The rear end problem is nerve damage, it won't get better, not that I was expecting a fix, but the good news is that she said it probably isn't particularly painful.  She actually has good range of motion in her rear legs, but the nerve loss prevents her from using it very efficiently.  The arthritis is worse in the front legs and we are going to try a different anti-inflammatory drug, along with some pain killers.  She's an old girl, at least 12 we figure, but she's as alert and hard working as ever.  She still chases Zachary up the stairs and monitors Molly when she's outside, and keeps an eye on all the fosters.  I don't know what I'd do without her.