The Trouble with Tiger

I have been reluctant to post about Tiger in the last week because he has been a little bit poorly, and by a little bit I mean a lot. For Tiger at least. He even went to the V.E.T.





Since at least the time we left Fuerteventura, Tiger has had a little tiny lump on his side that was just little and annoying, you could just feel it when you stroked him. It never bothered him or changed for years, and in the UK the vets like to check the dogs fully when they go into see them so if it had been an issue last time he was there, they would have noticed.

About a month, maybe six weeks ago, I noticed when stroking him that the lump felt bigger, and I've always kept an eye on it, so I pulled about in his fur until I could see it clearly. There was a little head on it, so I squeezed it and thought nothing more of it. It seemed to heal up and went flat for a while. Or so I thought, the lump came back, slightly bigger than before. Tiger still wasn't bothered by it so I just repeated the same process. He seemed fine, until I gave him a bath last week, on the day of the bath he seemed fine. Messing around like he usually does after his bath, and he hadn't bothered with the lump at all, it was a little red but I thought it was just where it had been picked at.

The next morning my mum woke me to tell me that Tiger had been gnawing at his side, I was up and out of bed, rubbing my eyes and putting my glasses on so quickly that it still took a while for me to see the little red bloody lump he'd managed to eat out of himself. I was on the phone to the (shhh don't say it) V.E.T quicker than you can dial.

I won't go into all the gory details, but the vet announced after weighing him and shaving him (just a small patch on his side) that Tiger had an abscess by his lung, and that it needed draining. She took care of the gory bits whilst I held on to him. He had painkillers and antibiotic injections. She told me that Tiger's wound would need to be kept clean and that if it didn't clear up within five days, that he might need an operation.

Tiger spent the last five days with his head in The Cone of Shame. A horrid dog cone to stop him biting himself which had yellow paw prints all around it, making him look like a very sad sunflower. He was only walked along the road, so he couldn't catch himself on the edge of any bushes, and he was only allowed to walk on the lead. Luckily for me Tiger is a very patient, very knowing little dog, and he took it all in his stride.

He even slept next to me in The Cone of Shame, which is the noisiest creation ever particularly when your dogs bed is in the gap under your desk where most normal people's chair goes. I did not sleep a wink for the first two nights (I think I slept maybe 3hrs over 2 nights). I was just worried he'd have a reaction to the antibiotics, or that he was as uncomfortable as he looked (which I am pretty sure he was- he's been asleep in the same position since we came upstairs over an hour ago). He never snapped once, he just took it all, he just sighed at me a little.

Yesterday was five days. Tiger is just over half way through his antibiotic course, and his fur is starting to grow back. The vet played with his side, squeezing at it and checking out the scab that has now formed over what was a hole in his side. He then told us that Tiger would not need an operation that everything was healing as it should and he should finish his antibiotic course and be just fine.

Which was a massive relief.