Okay, Curly's vet visit. My little old man was getting sick again...I got home from work Friday and he was sneezing constantly. I kept a close eye on him all weekend, and it was occasional but too much for my comfort.
Since Curly is 3 years old, I don't want to risk letting any respiratory infection progress to pneumonia. So, although sneezing was his only symptom (he was still grooming fine, eating like a pig, active and happy), we went to the vet. He's had several respiratory infections, unfortunately, but a round of antibiotics seems to clear them up. We've switched around the medicines: Baytril, doxycycline, and Bactrim orally, with gentamicin drops in the nose; this course we're going with Baytril and gentamicin.
The other thing that prompted Curly's appointment is a lump on his shoulder. I noticed the lump, then about the size of a baby pea, in the spring. It has grown slowly and I was hoping it wouldn't cause trouble, but now the skin has gotten kind of scabby and dry. It didn't seem like an abscess...no pus, no smell...but I wanted the doc to take a look. He said that the tissue is necrotic (i.e., dying). Normally I'd have it surgically removed, but I don't want to put Curly through anesthesia while he's sick...or at all, if we can help it, because of his age. So we are going to carefully monitor the tissue, too, in hopes that it gets no worse. Luckily Curly isn't bothered by it at all.
Here is a picture of the necrotic lump. I won't embed that picture...I've seen ickier things in dermatology textbooks, but I don't want to inflict non-cute pictures on the general readership.
Curly is getting his Baytril in cream of coconut syrup, which he loves. Last night the girls were asleep in the cuddle cup on the upper floor of the cage and Curly was in the tube on the lower floor. I thought, instead of disturbing him, I'll just give him his meds in the cage. Ha! As soon as he took his first lick, the girls zoomed down: Curly has something we don't! We want it! We don't know what it is, but if Curly has it, we must have it too!
I managed to hold them off with my right hand while feeding him with my left, but from now on, even if the girls are fast asleep, Curly comes out for his medicine.
Posted by Abita at September 3, 2003 07:49 PM