King's spa day...and some news about him

As I'm sure you recall, we have our dog King. We adopted him last year from a rescue group in Bullard, TX. We have absolutely LOVEDDDDDDDDDDDDD having him this year. He cured all of Sarah's dog fears. He is SUCH a sweet old dog. He's quiet (unless someone he doesn't know comes into the yard). He is calm (he is about 1/2 crippled from an old injury so he can't jump). He is slow & good natured so walks with him are relaxing & gentle, you don't get pulled down the street!

We've known ever since we got him that he's old & overweight and arthritic. The doctor noted some lumps you can feel on under the skin in several places at his very first check up. Honestly, we know that our years with him are limited. But we don't regret adopting an old dog in the least. He is the PERFECT dog for our family.

Today we had him groomed for the first time. Well, hang on.... It was the first time it was professionally done. I cut his hair myself last summer to cool him off, but since winter began, we haven't cut his hair because we didn't want to have a popsicle puppy in the yard! Spring has begun (sort of) around here, so we decided it was time to get his very long hair cut. He had some mats that needed to be cut out & he was dirty (again, no outdoor baths in the winter...brrrrr!). We only bathed him once over the winter on a warm day. So today was it! Our vet's office has a new groomer on staff. We took him this morning & checked him in for a day of beauty. He got a bath, got his nails trimmed, got his hair cut...the works!

This is a pic I took in November or December to give you an idea of the "before" look. We knew that the groomer would have to cut a lot of hair & leave him quite a bit shorter, but we really didn't expect the outcome we got.
Here he is after!



He's not bald like this picture appears, but the hair on his body is a lot lighter colored than what you see on his head, so it looks like he is!! In reality, his blonde body hair is only about 1/2 to 1" long all over! Whoa! Talk about a surprise!

He does appear to feel better. He's got a little bounce in his step that he didn't have this morning. So, while the look is a little shocking, he seems to like it. And after all, hair grows back, so we aren't mad....just SURPRISED!

And as for the news.....

When we got there to pick him up, the vet called us into an exam room to talk privately. He said that the groomer noted King's big belly. It's hard to see in this pic (above) but King does have a big tummy. With the much longer hair it was hard to tell, but one side of his belly is a lot bigger & sticks out further than it does on the other side. We've always seen a big belly & thought he was fat (and he is!), but never thought anything else was wrong.

The doc said that his big uneven belly moves out of the "big fat dog" category into an "abnormal, something is wrong" category. He said that if he didn't know we were already treating him with a monthly preventative for heartworms, that would be his first guess. But we are treating him monthly & he's got a negative test (recently), so that's not it. He said that his next guesses included a tumor or a heart problem. For either thing, we would have to consider the idea of whether or not to pursue treating it. With an older dog like King, you have to make the choice between treating him (which means spending lots of money on tests & possible surgeries) or just letting him live out his days. With a little puppy, you'd want to consider how many more years of life he might have if treated. With a 10 year old dog, that is not as much of a concern. Obviously if he were in pain or suffering, you'd have to consider putting him to sleep as well. For now, King does not appear to be hurting or suffering in the least. Larry & I have already talked about what we should do & the decision is made. We will let him live his life & love him as long as we can. If he gets to a place where he's uncomfortable & hurting, we will have him put to sleep.

The doc said tests (xrays & ultrasounds) would somewhere in the neighborhood of $400-500. If he has a heart problem, he'd be put on a pricey daily prescription medicine for the rest of his life. If he has a tumor, you'd run into $500-1000 for surgery & medicine to determine whether ir was cancerous or not...and then thousands for cancer treatment if it was malignant. Either way, we can't afford to go to that extreme. He is the greatest dog in the world, but he is, after all... a dog.

We are a little heartbroken this afternoon. The kids were with me in the exam room so the vet was speaking as coded as he could, mostly just discussing xrays & ultrasounds & bloodwork and not really delving into the diseases too much. But he made his point clear. Something's wrong & we have to make a choice about whether or not to treat King. The kids did "get" that something's wrong, but didn't really understand the whole conversation. And that's just fine with me. When we got in the car, Savannah asked a question about whether we'd spend a lot of money to "fix" King. I told her we probably could not & that we'd put him to sleep if he started hurting & feeling bad. She stuck her fingers in her ears & said "la la la la" so I know she "gets" it a little more than the other 2 kids. We didn't discuss it at length because the kids were more excited about discussing King's new 'do than whatever might be wrong with him. We talked about his short hair & moved on from the sad conversation.

:::sniff, sniff::: I wuv you, sweet Kingy Boy!