Reyna's Latest Owie

I was outside with the pups earlier today and noticed that Reyna's belly looked like she'd been licking a lot, so I checked it. I found a spot where she'd licked the skin off and it was oozing a bit, so I called the vet to set up a time to get some meds. After all, she licks hot spots up often enough (although none in several months) so I wasn't too concerned about getting in today or even tomorrow. While I was on the phone, though, she sat down, and I saw that the area she's been licking was very swollen. That's not a normal hot spot for her at all (green with infection, yes, extremely swollen, no). We couldn't get an appointment but they said they'd work us in if we showed up, so that's what we did.

Dr. L came out to the waiting room for a quick look shortly after we arrived. He thought she might have an abscess and said a tech would be out to get us shortly. While we were waiting for the tech, though, the office manager's dog got out of the office and decided to visit Reyna. Not good. When I saw him, I got a tight grip on Reyna's leash, stood up to do a body block, and yelled "loose dog." No one came out to the waiting room to help, and the other client sitting there (with no pets) did absolutely nothing. By that point, Reyna was going ballistic over this strange dog who kept trying to shove his nose up her rear. I was holding her as far away as I could while stomping my foot at the other dog, telling him "no" and "go away." That dog just would not take the hint. I know Reyna was telling him in no uncertain terms what she was going to do if I let go of her leash just a little bit, but he would not back off. It took a ridiculous amount of time for any employees to get in to the waiting room to help, and the office manager never did apologize. Thankfully, Dr. L seemed to realize that Reyna was not to blame for any of what happened. He asked if any teeth had connected, and I said no, because I know how to handle my dog to keep that from happening. Of course, if that dog had been more aggressive (rather than just plain stupid) we could have had a major problem on our hands.

After all that drama, we finally got into an exam room. Dr. L was initially planning to do a needle stick and take a sample of the abscess, but after poking, prodding, and getting up close and personal with it, he decided not to. Thankfully, its not as close to a lymph node as he originally thought from his first quick look. At this point, he thinks the swelling isn't an abscess, rather its Reyna's way of making hot spots more fun and exciting than they used to be (she so sweet like that, trying to keep things interesting). However, he does want to know whether or not the swelling has gone down in a couple of days. If yes, then I report in again five days later. If no, then we're looking at another visit. She has ten days of antibiotics to take, hoping that the meds help while not making her too incredibly sick (good thing I picked up more goats milk yesterday, although I'm not sure I have enough for ten days). She also has a topical spray for the spot that will hopefully keep her from licking it so much (yeah, right).

This first picture was taken with Reyna standing. Her belly is to the right, and my fingers are holding back the fur just inside her right hip.

In this picture, Reyna is sitting. The sore is obvious, the dark red around the sore is the swelling, and the light pink fur covered skin to the right is normal.

We'll see how things go over the next few days.