I can’t stand it when one of my pets become ill. It’s time like these when you wish they could just talk and tell you what’s wrong instead of trying to guess at what ails them. Case in point, Peanut.
Tuesday night, I noticed that he just wasn’t himself. He wasn’t running around the house. He wasn’t coming for his treat when I called his name, he just laid in his bed with a worn out look on his face. Wednesday morning, he appeared to be a little better, at least he came down for his Beggin’ Strip, but something still wasn’t right. I stayed home with him that evening and still knew something just wasn’t right. When it was time for bed, he sluggishly walked up the steps, jumped in bed with me and did his usual crawl under the blanket.
I noticed that he was licking a particular spot on his rear and noticed it was a hard lump. I figured this had to be a problem with one of his anal glands. For those who want to read more about these things, there’s an article on Drs. Foster & Smith’s Pet Education website you may want to check out. Those of you who have a dog know exactly what I’m talking about! Anyway, I felt it was time to get the old gland checked out, so Thursday morning Peanut went to the vet.
Unfortunately, the vet diagnosed him with an impacted anal gland and in order to reduce the amount of pain Peanut was in, it had to be removed right then and there. With an 11-year old dog, when I hear “surgery” I begin to get nervous. You may remember a few months ago, my 8-year old Chihuahua, Freckles, was going in to have surgery done to repair a hernia, but she died of liver failure before they were able to operate. Thoughts of that began running through my head, but I felt a little relieved when the vet said that it was a fairly quick procedure and he would not have to be “put under” in order to do the operation.
In the end (no pun intended), Peanut once again is back to being himself, although for the next two weeks the little guy has to wear one of those funny looking cones around his neck that will keep him from licking (blah!) the area. Baby doesn’t seem to mind his new fashion statement, but I don’t think she’s looking to add one to her collection any time soon.
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P.S. For those of you from Scranton, please excuse my play on words in today’s title. “The Trouble with Anal Glands” is in no way connected with “The Trouble with Cali” the long over-due, invisible, taxpayer-funded movie from Paul Sorvino. If Paulie Boy had anal glands they should be squeezed tightly with the expectation that Lackawanna County be repaid the money he was given to make this yet-to-be-seen movie.