A Clean Bill of Health

For those of you that follow along and are concerned....Chester was at the vet yesterday. He, like many dogs and cats (and people) in their "golden years," has kind of a laundry list of issues. The first is the low Albumin level (serum protein) that we seemed to have ruled out all of the causes for, but haven't figured this out yet. The good news is his numbers are back up, close to normal. He seems to be pretty stable from that stand point. The other issue he has had lately is a front leg lameness. He limps pretty well on one of his front legs, we just couldn't figure out for sure which it was. The list of rule outs for a 10 year old dog is cancer, arthritis or soft tissue injury. There is no sign of cancer on his x-rays. He will be on pain medications for the rest of his life already, thanks to 2 knee surgeries, but don't think he will be like Dr. House popping a Vicodin every 3 or 4 hours. He will get his yummy chewable Rimadyl twice a day. He does like them. He ate 14 of them once. (i dont recommend this!) The other issue he was seen for was a decrease in appetite. If you know chester, or any of my pets, you know a missed meal is something noteworthy. For him to not gulp down his food the moment it hits the bowl...I get a little concerned. We again, didn't find anything to be concerned about right now. Don't get me wrong...he eats, just not with the enthusiasm we are used to from him. He also has bad breath with tartar on his teeth, he is starting to loose some muscle mass and has little lumps and bumps growing all over now. But these are all part of being a 10 1/2 year old Brittany.