Marley's Test Results

Marley's biopsy came back as a Hair Matrix Tumor - basically a hair follicule gone wild. These are benign but it should be removed the next time she is under anesthesia - excision is curative. We also got the results of her vW's test - she is 128%; normal is 70 - 180% meaning she is not a carrier and is not at risk for hemophilia. Yippee!!

In other news, we are working on the Stud Agreement. Kirby inquired today how his bride-to-be is doing. Her reply - I am just fine!

Talk to you all later ~

Today Marley went in for her 3 year rabies shot and to have a vW test done. This is a picture of Marley's leg after we got home from the vet. She had a needle aspiration of a bump she's had for about a year. The bump had no change in that time so I didn't worry too much about it. Dr Woodside said it looked like a hair follicle that was just plugged but she sent it off to the pathologist just to be sure. The vonWillebrand's test will show us if Marley is a carrier for hemophilia. Hopefully, all her tests will come back normal. Tests that remain are brucellosis and progesterone.

Starting to Collect

Brianna and I went to Wal-Mart a week ago and began collecting towels for the puppy pen. We also bought a puppy bed and a few little toys. Karen has offered to let us borrow the whelping pen but we may need to repaint it. Marley's color is magenta which was her birth color. Right now, the whelping pen is purple and Lyric is using it with her eight puppies.

Reproduction Seminar

On April 26th, Karen and I attended a Reproduction Seminar sponsored by the Rose City Labrador Retriever Club. The featured guest speaker was Dr Robert Hutchison who runs ICSB-OHIO. It was a very interesting talk, with questions taken from the floor. For me, I thought he spent too much time talking about the male dog (I don't have a male dog!); however, I'm sure there were plenty of people in the audience who appreciated the information. He did cover some female health issues - don't worry, I won't go into them here - and some new, some would say controversial, treatments and procedures. I did find it interesting that the day of ovulation is when you begin counting forward to calculate when pups are due, not from the day of breeding. The female also determines how many puppies there will be. I enjoyed the lecture; he was entertaining and the time flew past. Before we knew it, it was 5pm and time to go.