8 Months!

As of May 6th Oma is 8 months old, and she is just a hair under 40 pounds now. The above picture is from Twin Bridges park in Merrimack about two weeks ago. We had an excellent time visiting with everyone on Mother's day.

I noticed a lump on a toe on Oma's right rear paw Friday and took her into the vet today to check it out. I am pretty sure it's a benign tumor that will just go away in a few months, but best to check it out.

I was hoping the vet would do a needle aspiration and send that to a lab for testing, but by the time I got Oma into the office and done jumping on all the nurses and playing with a dog out front the lump is bloody and the vet feels doing a needle aspiration won't be conclusive in that condition. Considering a needle aspiration costs 150$ I don't want to waste it.

The vet gave me a few old IV bags to use as a boot when Oma leaves the house to try to keep it clean. Also a 3 week supply of some antibiotics and a topical cream to be applied twice a day for three weeks. Oma already managed to eat half of one of the IV bags in about a half a second. I am going to Petsmart tomorrow to see about getting a dog boot that doesn't bother Oma when she walks. Otherwise this is going to be very hard to manage, the vet actually suggested we go two weeks with little or no activity, which just isn't possible I'm afraid. She looked so sad tonight because we didn't go on her daily pre-dinner hike.

The vet wants to manage it like this for a few weeks and see what happens. If it persists and isn't bleeding next we'll do a needle aspiration then. If it's just an infection then the antibiotics and cream should be effective and it should clear up if I can keep it clean.

On a side note, the anti-biotics prescription that would costs 45$ at the vet cost 5$ and change at walmart! WTF!?!