Poor Tessa

Does this little face look sick to you?

Well, not the best picture, so maybe she does. Haha! In real life, however, she does not look or act sick at all.

But she is. My poor baby! :(

On Sunday afternoon, when we got back from Charlotte, my brother and his fiancee mentioned that they had noticed a rather large lump on her neck, just below her jaw. We checked it out, and sure enough, there was a lump about the size of a gumball. It didn't seem to bother her--I was rubbing it, feeling around it, etc. and she never acted like she was in any pain. In fact, she seemed to enjoy the massage.

Well, I did some Googling on Sunday night and of course, found that there were many possibilities. Lipomas (basically fat-filled cysts) seemed to be the most likely culprit, but upon asking around on a message board, I was told by a veterinarian student that the location of the lump led her to believe it could be her lymph nodes. I was encouraged to get it checked out by our vet (which we planned to do anyway).

So I took off work early (thanks to my very understanding boss) to get Tess into the vet yesterday afternoon. The doctor took one feel of her neck and said it is her lymph nodes, all swollen. He said it's actually more than the one lump; there are four of them, and sure enough, all of them are swollen--the one we were feeling is just the largest. Once I felt around, too, I realized that she now had other lumps, too (the other lymph nodes). They must've developed overnight/during the day, because they hadn't been that big before.

The vet did a full examination, checking her eyes, ears, mouth, and skin for infection. He took her temperature. Everything looked normal. However, he still believes that she has some type of infection somewhere in her body, he just couldn't find the source from an external exam. So little Tess gets to take antibiotics twice a day for two weeks.

Lucky for us, Tessa eats anything and everything. All we've had to do is put the pill in her bowl with her dry food and she inhales it with everything else. She's awesome.

My family dog (passed away in July 2007 at 14 years old) was so ridiculous about taking medicine. In the last few years of her life, it seemed like she was always on medicine for something, and she was too smart for her own good. Anything we hid it in (french fries, cheese, peanut butter, hot dogs, etc.) she would figure out in like 2-3 days. Couldn't fool her for long.

We don't anticipate having any problems with Tess. She loves food too much to even notice anything out of the ordinary.

Anyway, we're hoping these antibiotics do what the vet expects them to do. He says that by the end of the 14 days, we shouldn't even be able to feel the lumps anymore. Her lymph nodes should go back to normal. If they don't, we'll have to go in for a biopsy. He mentioned the possibility of lymphoma (so scary), but he said he would expect other lymph nodes in her body to be swollen (they weren't), and also said she's really young for lymphoma. So as of right now, we're hoping for the best with the infection and antibiotic treatment.

In the meantime, we're babying her just a little more than usual. :)