Have you had your CBC today?

On Saturday night, around 2 am, I woke up, rolled over, and petted Bailey. Only to find a bump on his side.
Upon further inspection, it was oozing and crusting and looking rather unhealthy.
I picked him up, and ran to the other room, where Temple had passed out:
"Honey, look," I barked. "Bailey has a tumor. Look! Look!"
He didn't even have time to awake from his slumber before I had declared a Code Red Emergency. I spent the next three hours examining the unwanted intruder. I tried wetting it with a washcloth, to see if it was just something he'd rolled in. That elicited an endless flow of puss, which scared me even more. And then I watched as it alternated between little bits of blood and crusty scab-like material. I googled and googled. Weeping tumors. Tumors on dogs. Puss and tumors. I'd read something about tumors related to Kodie's cancer (malignant histiocytosis), and the evidence was piling up that Bailey also had the disease. He'd vomited twice in the past three weeks. And he was making those swallowing/lip-smacking noises that Kodie was. Only thing missing was lack of appetite, but that symptom would have a hard time manifesting in Bailey, who lives for food.

By 5:30 am, I had Bailey loaded in the car and was down the block on my way -- again -- to the emergency vet. Until I called my mom.

"Just wait. It's not cancer," she reasoned. "Oh, and happy mother's day." I'd waken her at 5:30 am on Mother's Day with not a mention of it. What a daughter.

I listened, I argued, I reasoned, and ultimately, I capitulated. "If it is a tumor, one day is not going to make a difference," she said. "And you'll save $1500 going to regular vet instead of the emergency vet. Anyway, you hate the emergency vet!"

She got me there. I couldn't stand to go back to that damn vet.

So yesterday (Monday), we made our way to the HMB vet. She was sweet and apologetic about Kodie, and very understanding about my concern for Bailey. Though she doesn't think it's a tumor, she suspects it was some other invasive substance (like a foxtail), which can also be very dangerous. She pulled it off and put Bailey on antibiotics.

I also asked (nay, demanded!) that we do a CBC on Bailey. CBC stands for a complete blood count, and the truth is, I'm not going to get over my fear that Bailey, too, could have cancer, until I see those results. Those were our first indicator that Kodie wasn't just "a fussy eater" (his results showed elevated calcium, low albumin, and increased globulin). I've since read a lot about people who test their dogs' blood and fecal samples every 6 months. So while we may not do it that often, I'll probably do it every year with Bailey's annual check-up. It costs $100, and I think you can do a topline blood panel for less. I chose to do the in-depth one so we'd have a good baseline.

We get the results today. I will, of course, let you know.

UPDATE: we got the test results, and Bailey is as healthy as can be.