Canine Health Report

Two weeks ago, we took Lola for her annual physical which includes a comprehensive senior pet exam. The new Covid-19 protocols have us waiting in the car, calling the office, and a vet tech comes out to pick up Lola. Well, Lola gets nervous about the vet anyway, and she flipped when a masked woman came to take her away from us. Thank God Jeff was with me. It took all three of us to wrestle her out of the car--beagle hair flying everywhere. We waited in the parking lot for the doctor to give us an update.

We asked about a mole on Lola's face that's grown larger over the last year. That was a wart (nothing to worry about) but Lola has a lump in her abdomen that will have to be removed. A more immediate concern was her kidneys: she had a higher level of toxins than she should have. The doctor discussed some of the reasons for the elevated readings--one was just that Lola was getting older. We really don't know how old she is--we think she is 9.

We took her for more tests last Monday. This time I took her out of the car before the vet tech came out to get her: that helped a bit.

We learned yesterday that she has two tick-borne diseases that are rare in this area. We speculated she could have caught them in North Carolina. She's already on antibiotics, so we'll finish them and then get her tested again.

Then we'll deal with the lump.

Poor Lola.

At least she enjoyed her walk today on the NRVT.