Poor Puppy

Before those of you who've met my dog say anything, shut up. I love him and he's my puppy and I love him.

My dog has a creepy thing between his toes on his rear right paw. It looked like a tiny stone or something got stuck under the skin, and considering how often we're at the beach, I figure it could be anything. I noticed it Thursday night, but Friday I had my own doctor's appointment to attend to so I got him a 1:40 slot at the vet on Saturday.

I figured I should also point out the little lump on his back where his tail meets his body. I wasn't sure if it had always been there and I just never noticed or if it was new, but it didn't hurt to check it out.

Neither spot seems to bother him, but his seasonal allergies have been bad the last few weeks and I'm plying him with half a Benadryl on his extra itchy days.

The vet decided to remove the lump on my dog's butt right away since it was a 15 minute procedure they could do with lidocaine and he has a history of cancer. A big shaved patch and three stitches make it look like they had to reattach his tail.

She squished and prodded his toe while he stood there and let her. This from the dog who won't stop barking until 10 minutes after a person he deems a "stranger" (ie anybody who isn't me or my parents or sometimes NBF) leaves my condo. Or about two square blocks surrounding my condo. Or my parents' house. The dog who shows teeth if that same "stranger" class of people tries to look him in the eye. Or put out a hand. Yes, my dog, was a perfect patient as the vet tried to dig into his gross icky toe thing to see what it was and if anything would come out. Nothing came out, but they soaked it in warm water with epsom salt and advised I do the same for a week and see what happens. The trouble is, if it's something like a malignant tumor (and apparently biopsying makes infections and tumors look the same?) then the whole toe would have to come off. He's had a hard enough life without losing a toe to the inadequecies of modern veternary medicine. Now, I don't know shit about dog tumors, but this thing looks more like a wart on top of an infected cut or something. That's why I thought it was a stone caught under the skin. Still might be.

So how do you get my dog to soak his foot in epsom salt? This worried me far more than the $300 bill at the end of the vet visit (thank goodness I got doggy health insurance). I was going to stick him in the kitchen sink. That's the one place I can give him a bath, with the spray nozel and deep sink so he can't escape as easily. But there are onions in my drain stopper and I didn't feel like cleaning my whole kitchen sink just to refill it with fur, and a foot soak doesn't require a spray nozel, so I moved operations to the hall bathroom. Warm water, epsom salts, and a package of bologna for bribes.

The dog followed the bologna and we had an absolutely lovely time hanging out, snuggling, and playing "snatch bits of bologna out of mommy's hands" while his two hind paws remained stationed in the full sink. After we were done and I lifted him back to the ground, he camped out in the bathroom like this was his new favorite place in theuniverse. And why shouldn't it be? The puppy-pedi-soak won't be so bad after all.