[Dailydrool] Dan

[Randee White]

I've been sort of lurking lately as work has gotten very busy and some family issues have kept me from timely DD reading.  I now find myself in need of some healing drool.  Dan the Man has some sort of problem that is proving elusive.  He's 11 and is my obedience, rally, therapy dog, so he's usually kept pretty busy.  Over the last couple of months he's been slowing down and I attributed it to age.  I still think some of his problem is age but over the last couple of weeks he has started to have some pain issues.  I thought it was his back.  Took him to the vet twice, got xrays, muscle relaxants, pain medication, and just in case, about 2 weeks of doxycycline.   He kept getting a little worse each day and seemed to center his complaints on his neck.  I took him to a veterinary accupunctrurist/chiropractor and she found one very swollen tonsil and a swelling on the opposite side of his neck.  We then started Clavamox.  That was Friday. 
 Over the weekend he stopped eating, started having break through pain even though he was getting Tramadol every 8 hours, and screamed in pain every time the area on his neck below his ears was touched.  I just dropped him off at the vetspital to be examined under sedation so they could really look at his tonsils, throat and take some xrays of his head to see if they could find anything.  The guesses/options range from infection that can be treated with antibiotics, finding something that needs to be biopsied and treated, drilling through the base of his skull to drain an abscess and placing drains that need to be flushed, to letting him go to the Bridge.  I'm stunned and can't begin to think what I'll do if the recommendations are to let him go.  If they find something that requires drilling into his skull, I just don't think I can put him through it.  He's such a gentlehound and he would never understand.  Please, please, send drool that this is
 only an infection that can be treated with antibiotics.  I don't want my boy to suffer but I don't know how I'll let him go if that's what needs to happen.  
Upset beyond belief,  Randee and the White House Gang
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