We took Horace back to the vet as a sort of emergency. The lump under his eye went from being a bit pink to becoming a very red and angry ball shaped lump and we didn’t know if that was normal and part of the process or something to be worried about. The vet said it shouldn’t look like that and as it was quite close to his eye she lanced the lump – which Horace took exception to and shook his head, covering everyone and everything in blood. Poor Ian took the brunt of it, with blood on his t-shirt. And the table that the vet was using looked like a butcher’s shop!
When we came out, the look on the faces people who were waiting was one of shock and horror – I am certain that one lady hugged her little yorkshire terrier close to her as blood spattered Horace, vet and Ian came out from the consulting room! The vet did make quite a loud joke about it being Halloween – to sooth people’s nerves a bit.
But after that, everything went relatively well and we managed to get Horace’s tablets into him by mixing them in water and squirting it into him. It was a bit of a struggle, but it was successful.
We took Horace back for a checkup and she cleaned the site of the lump and said it’s looking good and when it’s healed, in a couple of weeks, he can then have his teeth cleaned and they will remove any infected teeth. However, Horace doesn’t seem to have any problem eating, so I am hoping that they won’t need to do too much.
When we first got Horace and found out he had his condition, we learned that the average lifespan for a dog like this is 2 years. However, I don’t know whether this is the natural lifespan or includes dogs that are euthanized. Again, we were reminded that while the vast majority of time, Horace is very easy to care for, I don’t think he could be a lot bigger without it being impossible. Certainly I don’t think we could care for him if he was Daisy sized, and I think even if he was the same sort of size as Sam was, I think it would be challenging.
But we’re lucky that Horace’s safe space is under a duvet, and really, that’s all he wants from life. That and a little cuddle which he sometimes allows!