Harry's Latest

For the past several years, it seems that there is always a dog crisis right before or during my trips away from home. Iz's long illness was only part of that collection of data points. So the result is that before any trip, I start looking for the next crisis.

Hey, you regular readers should already know that I'm a glass half-empty kind of person so this admission should not be a big surprise. But it should also not be a surprise to you that, with all of the very real dog crises that I have experienced, I don't have to look very hard or spend effort manufacturing a crisis to fit. Something ALWAYS comes up.

And of course I am heading OOK in just a few days. The latest dog crisis concerns Harry.

I noticed over the past 3-4 weeks that he has been drinking and urinating way more than usual. His urine is light colored and clear but there was always just too much of it. My first thought was kidneys but Harry had no other symptoms. He has lots of energy, eats with gusto, poops regularly, skin and coat are in great condition, etc.

Then I was playing with him one afternoon last week and noticed this lump, kind of a flap of skin, growing on his gum above one of his canines.

He has other lumps, warts of various types, that are all benign but that get bigger with time. A couple of them had reached the size of small grapes. I figured this gum lump was another of the same sort of thing--but in his mouth? Combined with the extra peeing, I decided the pre-trip crisis had officially arrived. So off to the vet he went.

I told the vet about my concerns about his drinking and urinating and the vet agreed to run a blood panel. Then I showed him the lump on Harry's gum and three of his other warts. The vet said, yes, they are all kind of related. The one on his gum needed to be removed. And he said, let's give him some light anesthesia and remove them all. We can run the blood panel at the same time. I agreed.

To his intense unhappiness, Harry went back to the vet yesterday. Four hours later I picked him up. He has three staples in his neck and two on his belly where the vet took off the really big warts. And turns out he had two more warts on his gums that were bigger than the one I noticed--all of those were cut off and cauterized.

You have to click on this image to get a good look at those staples. The vet sprayed a silvery powder on his neck, some sort of antiseptic spray I suppose, but there is bruising on his neck too.

And his blood panel? Perfectly normal for every single variable measured. So, I said to the vet, you're going to tell me he's drinking more because....it's hot? Yep, the vet said, that's about right.

Well, even though it cost me a few hundred riyals to learn this, I figure peace of mind is well worth it.

Harry is a wonderfully healthy, fit 12 yr old dog. Now he's wart-free! And as a bonus, he has some gnarly metal staples!

Mimi was suitably impressed. She sniffed every square centimeter of him when he came home from the vet then left him alone for the rest of the afternoon. Harry was groggy, in a bit of pain, and pretty confused most of the day after the surgery (I spent the day working from home to keep an eye on him) but today, about 36 hours after the surgery, he seems to be feeling pretty frisky again.

Harry resting after his ordeal.