My Fire Hydrant

It’s been a long time since I posted an update on my little girl. Today, we went to see our favorite veterinarian, Dr. B., for Bailey’s monthly check up.

 In case you didn’t know, Bailey was diagnosed with cancer over 3 years ago, had surgery to remove her left anal gland and 2 lymph nodes, and given only a few months to live. That was in December, 2005. Since that time, we’ve gone monthly to our vet to keep track of any resurgence of the cancer. Some people might think the money would have been better spent paying off my Visa bill, but I disagree.

To check the status of Bailey’s cancer, Dr. B must (OK, this may gross you out) stick her finger up into Bailey’s butt. It’s a really good thing that Dr. B is a petite person–her fingers are small! And today we found…….everything NORMAL, NO CANCER! [[doing my happy dance!!]]

Bailey’s heart is beating very well–no murmurs, her lungs sound good–she’s taking nice deep breaths, her reflexes are good (though her back legs are a little weak), and her weight continues at 18.9 pounds.

Now the other side of the coin: her cataracs have gotten noticibly worse–Dr. B has said that every visit for the past 3 months. I suspect my girl is going to be blind very soon. And I have been a very neglectful mom in that I have gotten out of the habit of cleaning her teeth and it’s starting to show!! BAD MOM!!! (where’s the rolled up newspaper?) I have GOT to make a better effort to brush her teeth!

We also discussed the fact that Bailey has had a few more incidents of  “backwards sneezing” lately, and some rough breathing. Dr. B. feels very certain that this is due to environmental allergies which we will take care of with some baby Benadryl.

When the exam was over, Bailey retreated to her Sherpa bag–her safe place. Poor sweetheart! Not only did we inturrupt puppy nap time for the vet visit, but she had to undergo the indignity of having her butt checked! One of the wonderful women who work at the front desk at the clinic gave Bailey a cookie, which didn’t exactly make up for her lost dignity, but which certainly helped make her feel better.