Dash under the knife

No posting for the last three weeks, but good reasons why not. First, I’ve been away in Russia on a work trip; second and more important, poor Dash has been under the knife. It all started when I took her to the vet’s to get her nails clipped. Those of you who have greys (particularly hounds with black nails) will know it’s easy to nick ‘the quick’ and it can bleed for quite a while. I also took her to the vet since she’d developed a limp in her front right paw and I was curious to know if the overlong nails and the limp were connected. The nurse at the vet’s duly clipped Dash’s nails, but spotted a corn on one of the pads. At least that accounted for the limp. Then she asked me a question: ‘How long has Dash had that lump under her eye?’ ‘What lump?’ I asked. I saw Dash every day, all day. If anyone was going to notice a lump, it would surely be me. Apparently not. Once the nurse had pointed it out, I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Sure enough, there was a lump the size of a marble under the fur of her cheek (see the ‘Before’ photo above). It moved about when you touched it and made me feel a bit squeamish. ‘Better let the vet check it out,’ the nurse advised. He did, and didn’t like the look of it either. So two days later (the day before I was due to go away – what bad timing!), Dash was booked in for an operation to have the lump and the corn removed at the same time. You can see from the ‘After’ photo above that removing the lump left quite a scar. For a week she wore ‘the cone of shame’ (as one Tweeter wittily terms it) and hobbled around in a plastic sock when outside. The good news is that she’s now on the grassy road to recovery. The stitches are out and, while she’ll be left with a pirate scar on her cheek, the lump was thankfully not malignant or cancerous. Phew!! Roo! In the next posting I hope to have more positive news, including an account of Dash’s two recent radio appearances.