Lumps And Bumps And Limping

[Xan]

Thanks again, y'all, for following along with me!

 

Oddly fond of the lump? Funny you should mention that! I was just telling her this morning how she had the prettiest lump I'd ever seen, and it would always be the-lump-which-was-not-nasty to me.

 

The throat irritation he thought could be an old-age laxness in the esophagus. He said it could progress to a collapse, but we'll cross that bridge if/when we come to it.

 

Corns: yeah. Wabi has a corn, as I said, so we bootie her up for walks, and have done a few times for Happy as well, though she didn't show a change in her stride. But, if she's already uncomfortable on her right side, and gets corns on her left, that doesn't leave her any feet to put the extra weight on! So, seeing a change in her gait might not indicate anything. She does show real reluctance to cross our gravel driveway, though, which is a dead giveaway for tender pads. That was the clincher for me. Her corns aren't as hard as Wabi's yet, so I was a little unsure. Happy's not going on walks with us right now because of her other limping situation, but we do have boots enough for all the suspicious feet.

 

Rash: Yes, it is itchy to her! When she first came, she had more, it was a bit angrier, and it was (or something like it) on her elbows, too. After a few baths with oatmeal shampoo, we got to about where we are now. I do put Bag Balm on it to keep it from drying out at least, and that does seem to keep the itchies down to a tolerable level. When they do the x-rays, I'm going to have them do a punch biopsy on the rash, too. The vet had many possibilities for what it might be, and that seemed like the most diagnostically reliable way to figure it out.

 

I've been thinking about trying ACV on her rash and pimply spots. The rash might be irritated by it, though, so I've been putting it off. Any thoughts on that?

[ZoomDoggy]

Could the skin problems be related to a food or environmental allergy?

[greylyn]

He listened, and took into account what I said, and seemed to have a pretty good working knowledge of what to expect for sighthounds and "track dogs", specifically. He did discount the idea of corns; "We don't really see true corns in dogs," going on to explain about their thick pads and how they adapt to the surfaces they are exposed to habitually, until I told him about Wabi's, which is quite classic.

 

I like my vet for precisely this reason - she recognizes that I do know some things (and I recognize that I don't know everything! She's the one who went to vet school after all!). Regarding the corns, she had never seen them before, so I suggested she Google "greyhound corns" and gave her the Grasmere Hosp. site; she called me a short while later to say that she had checked it out and was confident that she could do the job, so now we go in once a month to have Kieran's corns hulled (she has one on each foot!). We have found that if we wait longer, the corns get quite large and deep.

 

I don't know if other breeds get corns but I don't think so and my vet said she's never come across them before. I do agree they aren't "true corns" such as humans get from shoes that rub,etc., but the term is sufficiently descriptive that it's a good enough working title, IMHO. Regardless of what we call them, they ARE very painful for the dogs and they do need to be dealt with. Kieran wears her Therapaws when we go for our walks; in the winter, she wears her Blizzard Boots.

 

As for other lumps, we will join in the chanting here too!

[Guest hannahmom]

Benign is a wonderful word !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ShantisMom]

Great news! Are you still doing a happy dance??? I would be!

[Xan]

Rash: Food or environment? Possibly. She did have the rash when we got her, so it would have to be something that she had in common with wherever she got it in the first place. Her former owner on the farm didn't remember her having either a rash or a lump, though, which says to me she didn't notice, 'cause neither one popped up overnight, I wouldn't think. (**Which is not to say she's not a lovely person, which I believe she is! She wants to have regular updates on all her dogs, and sends them all a christmas gift of cookies every year! ) To start ruling out environmental and food factors is, as we know, complicated, and will certainly be done if the biopsy doesn't solve the mystery. I purposely kept her on one main protein source since we got her, so it would be easy to rule that out by a switch once we'd gotten her settled in otherwise. We'll see...

 

Thanks for the reminder about the Grassmere Hospital site. I'd forgotten where that was, with it's excellent photographs! I'll definitely bring it to his attention.

 

Happy dance? Oh, you betcha! Every time I look at her or think about it!