Unintended consequences. Ruff becomes a casualty of play-school.

Some bad news here but hopefully it will get better. Yesterday I noticed a large wet spot under Ruff's chin that was larger than my hand. It was also crusty so I mistook it for saliva from baby Bessie's make-believe combat. Turned out her make-believe combat hasn't been very make-believe. While Ruff was pretending to fight, Bessie wasn't. The wet spot was puss oozing from some infected bite marks she gave him with her needle-sharp teeth. I washed Ruff's chest with shampoo and scrubbed the crust away and it looked serious enough for a visit to the Vet this morning. My suspicions were correct and now Ruff is on a mega-dose of 3000 units of Cephalexin antibiotics per day for the next ten days and the love of his life is going to be kept away from him.

Looking back on some of the photos of Bessie hanging from Ruff's neck I now realize the snarly look on Ruff's face was not pretend. Ruff was in pain but he never tried to hurt Bessie, he just tolerated everything she did to him. I think that says a lot for Ruff's temperament. He loves his little girlfriend but she is now a formidable 42 pounds and getting quite strong. 

I am sure glad it wasn't more serious than it turned out to be. At least the medication was not too expensive.

Just on a side note, I also brought the little terror with us to the Vet today because Bessie was scheduled for her Stage 4 Parvo shot and the doctor happened to comment on how big she has grown. He said that on August 29th, exactly two months ago, when we got her she only weighed 13 pounds. She has gained 28 pounds in 8 weeks.