He IS ok!

We had a late afternoon vet appointment and took a laundry list to talk about. The black belly bumps appear to be hemangiomas, not hemangiosarcomas. Only one of the bumps could be aspirated, but it was definitely a pretty bloody thing once she started poking around it. The others are too flat to aspirate. So we were cautioned to watch it, maybe photograph the area weekly to monitor it for a month or so, and do nothing.

Dakota's belly has been looking really pink to me lately but I thought it was my imagination. Lo and behold, by the time we got to the vet today, his belly had begun to peel. It looked like a sunburn. She mentioned a couple of possibilities, mostly chicken and egg stuff (which came first, the bumps or the pink belly?), and I will use a topical steroid spray I have. She thinks it will resolve on its own.

The third thing we did was go ahead and start treating Dakota's lupus again, as it appears to be trying to flare up. It's not awful, but I don't want it to be. I hate putting him on daily meds forever, but she told me that she has tried several holistic approaches to lupus and nothing has worked except the tetracycline or doxycyline combined with niacinimide. At least it's cheap.

Speaking of cheap, she must be independently wealthy. Anybody in the Boulder-Denver area needing an affordable integrative vet, contact me and I'll refer you. Our office visit today including the aspiration and cytology was a whopping 37 bucks. And the vet tech and Dr. Brown together spent an hour with us. 

Thanks for the warm and fuzzy thoughts about D. He hates the vet, but take a look at the cushy digs this one has!

Here is Double D (as Pegz mom calls him) on Dr. Brown's comfy exam room bed.