Otis LOVES his vet. Dr Sherri, (yes Otis is on a first name basis with her), took his temperature and attempted to aspirate the lump with a giant needle. Otis let her do it all without complaint. Dr. Sherri couldn't withdraw anything from the gland. She says often something gets compacted up in there. When inspecting inside Otis' mouth, she pulled out a big clump of dog fur and held it up, looking at it as if to say, "what the...?" Mr. B. shook his head and said "He hangs off Munky." "Of course he does. Poor Munky." replied Dr. Sherri.
You have to know that bulldogs are much like chipmunks.. they can hide things in their mouths. Otis picks things up off the ground he shouldn't eat constantly and when told to drop it, stops chewing, pretends to drop it and then waits until you look away. He starts chewing again. This will happen a few times, then we go in physically holding his mouth open and searching that huge mouth with all it's folds. Can't find anything... hmmm maybe he did drop it.. look away.. he starts chewing. This repeats until the item is finally found glued to the roof of his mouth or under the corner of his tongue where you checked the last time you checked. Mr. B. had pulled some fur out of Otis' mouth when they left the house.. I guess Otis was keeping this clump of Munky fur to chew later.
The diagnosis was an inflamed, compacted salivary gland, which sure sounds better than lymphoma, although if it doesn't clear up we'll have to biopsy it. Three shots later Otis was on his way home with two bottles of pills that he has to take twice a day. Otis doesn't mind though, because Dr. Sherri said to give them to him in peanut butter.
Otis loves Dr. Sherri. Otis loves peanut butter. Otis loves Dr. Sherri.
The lump shrank to jawbreaker size by Tuesday morning and has been shrinking ever since. So it seems the medication is working, or maybe it's the peanut butter. Otis thinks it's the peanut butter. He thinks he should get peanut butter everyday from now on. Peanut butter everyday keeps the vet away, he says.
