Bill went in to have his abcessed tooth checked...Nicole found the bad tooth, I already knew about the bony mass on his cheek...which I was hoping to ignore. Anyway, the vet figures the tooth abcessed as the mass moved into the gum line creating more pressure. It does not look good, we did some bloodwork to check his calcium levels which may tell us if it is cancerous and how significant it is. He has lost 33 pounds in the last year, I was stunned, I knew he was going down as he is way more active now, than he was with all the field runs lately, but 33 pounds?? that scares me. Bill is pushing 17 years old...we don't do surgeries on 17 year old labs if we can help it. I was quite happy to ignore that mass as it was causing him no pain, and chances are that something is going to end his life sooner than later. But now that tooth is going to become painful, and it needs to come out. They might as well try to remove the mass, while they are in there. The vet says the surgery itself is a no-brainer, the trick will to be to make sure Bill wakes up from the sedation. Even a best case scenario is going to suck. Assuming Bill does fine with the surgery and wakes up again without trouble, there will be at least a 2 week healing process which means no field runs and toddering about eating horse poop. That is Bill's very favorite thing to do. When you are as old as Bill, 2 weeks of missing out on your very favorite things can literally be a lifetime.
We went to Mcdonalds after the vet's and Bill had a cheeseburger and a junior chicken sandwich, he is home now and having a nap because that was a long, long day for him. Bill has been with me for many years, he was one that no one would ever adopt. Six years ago, everyone said he was too old and he wasn't. Now he is and I don't want him to be this old. I want him to stay exactly like he is, no more weight loss, no more grey hairs, no more aging before my eyes. i gotta teach that dog to freeze time and just stay like he is now, forever.
That was # 38 on the list of 50 things forgotten :- )