Every dog has its day, they say, so today is our dog's day to have a blog post.
Those of you who have met Mac recently know that he has had a growth on his mouth that showed up around the end of December. In the last few weeks he has also developed a really dry, hacky cough. Since Mac is about 15 years old and is getting deaf, blind, and very lame, I have been hoping that one day we'll wake up and find that he has passed peacefully during the night.
That hasn't happened yet, so we finally decided he needed to see the vet. I really didn't want to take him in myself because I was so worried the vet would condemn him to death immediately and I didn't think I could bear it. But, as usual, taking him to the vet fell to me; fortunately, the consequences weren't anywhere near as bad as I thought they might be.
Mac has a heart arrhythmia so his heart, instead of going dub-dub, dub-dub, dub-dub like a normal heart, goes dub-dub, dub-dub, dub-dub-dub, dub-dub. In other words, one side of his heart sticks in an extra beat once in a while. His heart is also enlarged because it's doing more work than it really should do. The enlarged heart is pressing against his airway causing the hacky cough.
The growth on his mouth probably is cancer, but if we can get his heart back into normal rhythm, the vet thinks it can be surgically removed. There is no sign that it has metastasized on the x-ray they took, so that's good news.
All in all, for a dog of his age, he isn't in bad shape. At least we aren't having to face putting him down right away. He's on antibiotics for the growth and heart medication for the arrhythmia, so we'll see how he makes out over the next few weeks and go from there.
On a brighter note, since this day is looking pretty good, I'm headed out to my sister's this afternoon for some equine therapy.
Have a wonderful weekend!
-- Lori
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1 comment:
Well, just one more thing Mac and I have in common, I also have an extra dub. I've had arrhythmia since I was a kid, well probably forever, and I can feel when the extra beat happens, just in case you were wondering. I sure do hope and pray that all goes well with Mac too. Can't wait to hear how the riding goes Lori, springtime is so much fun when you can rip through puddles on a horse! They don't even need rubbers. Take good care, enjoy, we'll talk to you soon.
Love Always, Bev.
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