Sick Old Boy

5^th August 2013

Dear Cassi,

         

If there is one thing I can tell you about old Porkchop the Bear Dog it’s that he is a sickly fellow. Over the weekend, he developed an abscess on his cheek that looked like an irregular tumor. It was a red-purple node of infected flesh about the size of a large grape. A second point of infection protruded from his ear. This second point was yellow and about the thickness of a stalk of hay.

         

I knew that a trip to the vet would run me at least three hundred dollars and that his problem wasn’t life threatening.  I decided to bleed the infection before putting the money into him as, well, I could do better things for my dog with three hundred dollars.

         

A word I picked up from the veterinarian is ‘express’ as in ‘I need to express the wound’ this is a fancy way of saying ‘milk it to get the infection out’. When I expressed the smaller wound it gave off yellow goop and went away but the larger wound was more persistent.

         

There was more blood than infection is this bizarre growth and expressing this was complicated as there were multiple sacs of fluid. When I cleaned the wound with peroxide I could see between four and six small holes where the fluid had come out. Every few hours I drained and cleaned his wound again. The big brown dog seemed to realize this was for his own good as once I even think he went to sleep.

         

The worst of these happenings for me was when the yellow goo hit me in the eye and made me weary of looking after the dog. Thankfully his infection is unlikely to transfer.

Hope he gets better, little sister,

Richard Leland Neal