Golf Balls (TMI & Grossness Warning!)

This is a golf ball:

This is not:  (Here's the TMI & Grossness)

That's what's growing on Frasier's leg.  As gross as it looks in the picture, it's worse in person and it looks eveen worse from the side.  It's close to golf-ball size.  The vet has been watching it, I've posted about it some but we've been watching it for a while.  We've tried a few different things, and he's been making regular trips to the vet to get it looked at.  The vet has finally decided that it's not going to a) shrink, b) stop growing.  Mostly because Frasier simply will NOT leave it alone.  Frasier goes to the vet to get it removed on August 31st, the vet thinks he can do it with a local and not a full-blown anesthesia.  Two reasons for that:  It's expensive (and Bill won't approve the cost - which is pretty hefty) and b) Frasier is an older dog and the vet wasn't really comfortable with putting him under if he could avoid it.  Of course, they might have to duct tape the dog to the wall to keep him still!  (Otter took the picture and there was no way she could get a clear shot of the spot without "everything else" as she put it, so my hand is hovering over Frasier's unmentionables in the hope of at least letting the dog have the illusion of dignity!).

The discoloration on the fur around the spot is from Frasier's constant attention.  The spot is block & red mottled skin on the top and last Saturday, it started bleeding a little bit.  Just a bit, and I think it was mainly because Frasier was slithering around on the floor since he was juuuuuuuuuuuuuuust out of reach of getting an ear scratch - it's so much easier to slither than to actually get up and walk a few inches!  It hasn't bled since then.  The vet is fairly certain that it is what is called a lick granuloma and not cancerous.  I think he's probably right about that, but if it does turn out to be something bad then we'll have a decision to make that I don't even want to think about.  It's also something that Frasier was doing before we got him, and could well be the cause of the earlier spots on his legs which we thought was cancerous before.

Maggie's surgery on the place on her head a year or so back was a little more detailed, even as big as Frasier's spot is.  Maggie's was under the skin and deep.  Also, she's a smaller & younger dog and it was easier to anesthetise her.  But Friaser, well the family motto is Go Big or Go Home and he's just staying true to that.  Of course, he's already home so I guess he has to Go Big?!