Max's Road to Recovery

Well – it was a good run while it lasted. The e-collar “cone of shame” is back. Hopefully not for a long time. I came home today at lunch to find Max licking his tail. This isn’t out of the ordinary for Max to be licking his tail/groin/paws, but when I looked closer I noticed under his tail was now bleeding a little bit. Great … thanks Max. So back to the e-collar we go.

I called Connor’s groomer and she squeezed us in to have his tail shaved. I know, it’s not all that attractive, but it’s much easier for me to get the shampoo to his crusties on his tail and to put ointment on his hotspot (just found those crusties today – I think it’s a dermatitis of some kind or another side effect of his untreated hypothyroidism, but it seems to come off rather easily with some gently exfoliation). The hair on his tail was a good 4″ long on the end. We go back July 11th to have a proper haircut. She’s going to cut it all the same length so he will be cool for the summer and it will all grow in nice and even.

He’s not very traumatized but the whole deal as he was passed out cold until I took this photo.

You can’t really see his tail in this shot but it’s super skinny. The groomer also told me that the only dog she knows that has two dew claws on the back (he as 3 on one foot and 2 on the other) is a Swiss Mountain Dog. She also thinks he may have a little long haired daschund in him. Lol.

Good news is that all of his bloodwork from last week came back normal. Yipee! I know I’ve said it before, but it really feels like we’re some making some real progress.