Poor Poppy

Posted by Rosie

Poppy, Feb 2104

Way back in February I posted this picture of Poppy looking really miserable in a "lampshade".  She had just come back from the vet as something has caused her to start licking a patch inside one of her back legs to the point of it forming a granulated and sore lump.  The vet said we needed to stop her licking there and hopefully the lump would go.  Well over the coming weeks she wore the "lampshade" but as soon as we removed it she would start licking again.  We even tried a muzzle as we thought this might be less of a hassle for her but she really hated that, where-as she kind of accepted the "lampshade".

We then learnt from the Internet that dogs such as Labs can be susceptible to this incessant licking resulting in lumps - a form of canine OCD that has various causes including stress. Ben pointed doubt that maybe the "lampshade" and the muzzle were actually stressing her. We took a risk and totally removed both and she appeared to stop licking.  Yeah - maybe we had won?

Or maybe not.

A few weeks ago I noticed another far larger lump on her belly and she also appeared to have been licking the original lump again, making it sore again.  This time the vet reckoned that the original lump was infected internally and the pus from it was draining into what she called a ganglion in her belly.  She suggested a course of anti-inflammatories and ant-biotics.  Hey ho, by the end of the course BOTH lumps had gone.  Maybe this time we had won?

Or maybe not.

A week or so on and the lumps returned.  The vet was rather flummoxed and decided that the best course of action would be to remove them both and have them analysed to ensure they were not cancerous.  Poor Poppy went in last Monday and came home later, free from lumps but sporting 2 very impressive scars and that "lampshade" again..

We are now waiting to see the results of the analysis.  In the meantime Poppy is doing fine although sulking as she is only allowed walks on a lead. There are however two advantages of all this.  Wearing the "lampshade" makes it much harder for her to steal food and being stuck on a lead means she cannot steal fallen hazelnuts whilst we are out which means we are spared the horrible sound of her crunching through the shells to get to the kernel.   To be honest though, I'll put up with stealing and crunching if we can finally get this issue sorted once and for all.

Poppy