The Senior Exam

Two weeks ago I took Sherman for his senior exam. I was about 3 months late on this seeing as his birthday was back in November. In my defense, it was THE holidays and time just got away from me.

Obviously, I wasn’t super concerned about rushing him in to get checked out the day he turned 9. He normally goes to the vet about every 6 months or so and aside from the heavy breathing, nothing pressing was taking place that I was aware of.

However, as I mentioned in his birthday post, the only thing to note WAS his heavy breathing. It’s something I wasn’t super concerned about. Yes he was breathing a little heavier than he had been in the past but to me, I thought it was just Sherman being Sherman. There was no sign of exercise intolerance, no lack of oxygen flowing, no coughing, regular heart beat and rhythm. It was just Sherman.

However, my paranoia eventually took over and I started second guessing myself, so I made the appointment one day after a nightmare I had where Sherman lost ALL his legs.

I know. Completely unrelated but I figured it was a sign.

So in he went for a senior check up. Mostly to make sure his heart and lungs were good and to make sure that none of his legs were in danger of coming loose and falling off anytime soon.

As I expected, Sherman’s legs are in no immediate danger of falling off and his heart and lungs are working properly.

Hooray!

He actually checked out pretty well.

His right knee is obviously larger than the left due to scar tissue but the vet said it felt good and that his muscle mass was fantastic which was music to my ears because you know how hard I work on making sure that he maintains good muscle in his rear.

Walking up and down all those hills has paid off!

We also tested for Lymes, just because we had the stupid tick issues over the summer. All clear!

The only negative news came when his bloodwork was done. Everything was great except his liver enzymes were slightly elevated.

The vet said that she didn’t think that it was anything to be overly concerned about right now but that we should add in some SAMe and recheck the values in a month and go from there.

I’m good with that and so is Sherman.

Oh! We’re also keeping an eye on a very small tumor looking object on one of his digits. It’s at the base of a previously broken nail and it’s been there for a few months now so again, not overly concerned because it hasn’t changed but we will watch it closely.

So that’s that. All  in all I’m pretty happy with his senior exam. It went better than expected and I was reassured that my instincts are still pretty intact.

A little jaded but intact.

p.s. Sorry for the lack of posting last week. Nothings up, I’m just being lazy. Well not really lazy, the kids are busy which means I’m busy and my down time is spent sleeping. Damn kids.

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