Finally got the heeler Mom in to see the vet.

She's had a recurrent, nonstop skin condition for most of her adult life, something the vets have been unable to cure. Best control has been antibiotics, and prednisone.

After losing two heelers to liver and kidney failure resulting from prednisone use, the wife considers that drug a poison, more than a treatment. And keeps the heeler Mom's dosage a low as possible to barely keep the itching and scratching in check. And lately, she (the heeler, not the wife) has been attacking the ears. And they are crusted, and odiferous.

So, to the vet we went.

Heeler slipped her collar at the clinic door, even though it was on the tightest notch. Made a break through the parking lot, and then realized she didn't know which truck was ours, nor how to get home. And resigned herself to entering the torture facility.

So, her ears?

Just bacterially and fungally infected, from all the scratching. Treat with an ointment.

But the large skin tumour that she has had on her chest since before the pups were born has doubled in size in the past half-year or so, and gotten quite soft in recent weeks.

That's a bad thing, according to the vet. Not our regular vet, but the elder vet he has taken on as a new partner. Nice guy, I guess, but couldn't keep track of the heeler's sex, much less her name. The younger vet knows her well, as she was one of his first difficult cases (and yeah, he kinda failed).

She goes in for surgery tomorrow am.

Fourteen years old, and under anaesthesia. That's about a hundred in canid years.

Yeah, we're worried. But the tumour has been bothering her for some time, and they're gonna take the smaller one off her left eyelid at the same time, so this should be a good thing. Not to mention trimming her toenails, which has become quite a chore since she quit taking the walks to the post office on the concrete sidewalks.

Need to remember to tell the vet not to trim the dewclaws. Heelers, like dingos, use their dewclaws to hold things, like using thumbs.

Gotta keep 'em sharp to work.