Every Sunday we routinely perform “ablutions” on our dogs. Fran’s and my four all get their nails done, teeth brush, faces washed, and ears cleaned. With the two of us working it goes pretty quickly and the dogs are all pretty good about it.
About a month ago, while brushing Teddy’s teeth, I noticed a lump on his palate. I just made a note of it and watched it. In the rough-and-tumble of dog play, anything can happen, so we don’t get too concerned about little scrapes, bruises, lumps or bumps. At least not at first.
When the bump was still there after three weeks. it was time to take him to the vet to get it checked out. We were both hoping it was some kind of infection or abscess, so we had him on antibiotics for 10 days. Still there and starting to get a little scary.
Teddy had surgery on Friday to have it removed. It’s always frightening when our dogs have to be anesthetized – especially since all of them are short-faced dogs. Fortunately Teddy came through the surgery with flying colors. He’s a bit unhappy that he’s not allowed to chew on his beloved Nylabones for a few days, but we can live with that.
The hard part now is waiting for the results of the biopsy. We’re trying to stay positive and assume it was just a benign overgrowth of gum until we hear differently. But it’s going to be a very slow week until we hear the results this Thursday.
