March 17

Lilu might not share my gratitude, but today I'm grateful for her vet doctor.

Over the last few weeks, she developed several odd hairless circular patches on her skin so I took her in to be checked. After doing a scraping on the patches, the vet determined she had demodetic mange. This isn't a good diagnosis in adult dogs, as the mite's appearance is usually related to a lowered immune system. I am intensely relieved and thankful that Lilu's blood tests came back negative for all of the bad stuff, but I'm sure not looking forward to force-feeding her bitter medicine daily for at least the next eight weeks.