First, a conversation held via BBM yesterday:
Me: Leo has doggy AIDS.
Sara: Has he been having sex with a monkey?
Me: Yes. I've been making illegal pet porn and not requiring them to wear condoms...
I know, totally NOT politically correct and NOT true, but I do have a slightly twisted sense of humor.
Now for the real update...
I went to the vet yesterday for a 2 week checkup from the last round of antibiotics. There didn't seem to be any change in his cough or runny nose, so the vet decided to put him on a different antibiotic, which I have to get from a people pharmacy. While there, I mentioned that this strange growth on his lip has gotten bigger and that he is getting these bald patches, and jokingly said he had scabies. Both the vet and the assistant step back when I said that, and said "not a joking matter". They then took a closer look and opted to do a test to see what was causing the issue.
Time passed and eventually the vet came back in letting me know the following:
- The skin issue is actually Demodex Mange.
- The weird thing on his lip is Canine Papilloma Virus.
- And, well whatever is going on with his respiratory system is well know.
What all of this, according to the vet, signifies is that my poor Leo more than likely has an immune deficiency. (Not an autoimmune deficiency, which is AIDS.) The vet recommends that I take him to an internist for a consultation to confirm, but she no longer thinks that we need to go through the expense of doing some of the diagnostic tests that they were at one time promoting. Instead, we need to determine a long term care plan that will keep him comfortable and, hopefully, relatively healthy for as long as we can.
Needless to say, not exactly the happiest vet visit, but at least we aren't shooting in the dark quite as much to figure out what is going on with him.
UPDATE: I'm thinking of changing Leo's nickname from Devil Dog to Bubble Dog...you know since I'm basically going to have to keep him in a bubble...
