It turned out we did need to take Winston to the vet.

In case you couldn't guess, taking a giant breed dog with a sore paw to the vet is NOT easy. I had to unload Hosni ( the vaccuum cleaner) and all of my cleaning supplies from the back of the cruiser then encourage Winston to get in. Normally this would be no problem since he is basically large enough to just hop in the back of the P.T. But with a sore foot he really needed encouragement getting in and getting out.

And, once he got out, he headed straight for the bakery and stood there, waiting for someone to open the door!

Winston isn't really afraid of the vet. He never exactly feels it when he gets a shot ( and that was true this time also) and even when he's having blood drawn he's getting so much attention that the prick of the needle hardly impacts him.

What he hates - HATES- is getting on the scale. We have been estimating Winston's weight ever since he became an adult dog. He would not, under any circumstances, get on a scale at the vets, and he is big enough that when he is in total refusal mode he can sometimes win.

This time, he did get on. For some reason, he took a sort of dislike to the vet tech, who seemed quite nice and competant....but she was very much a take charge and lets-do-it-now kind of person. Mastiffs are a "let me slow down and think about this" type of breed so I think that was the main reason why he wouldn't go anywhere with her. He just sat down, tried to pull his head back out through his collar, batted her away with the paw that wasn't hurt and backed into a bird cage ( by the grace of God, the bird was not in it at the time).

Winston is sort of a walking "event" when he goes anywhere, and this was true in the lobby where the scale was too. Finally I stood by the scale and called him and he came to me. He looked at the scale with deep suspicion, but he did put two paws on, whereupon I nudged his hind quarters up onto the scale with a lot of encouraging talk.

"218" the vet tech said authoritatively. She says everything authoritatively

"HOW much?!" I asked, stunned.

"It says 218 lbs."

"Bless my soul" I muttered as Winston ambled into the exam room.

The vet we chose is highly recommended and has one of the best reputations in the county. He's very big on birds....and I have to say, without any malice whatsoever, that the man bears a startling resemblence to a hatchling. However, he knew a great deal about the breed, even though he is not a large breed specialist, and even said how happy he was to have Winston as a patient since he is "a lively change of pace!" He quickly diagnosed an infection in Winston's paw and also in his ears. I told the vet I had been cleaning Winston's ears scrupulously, but he explained that I was probably using the wrong type of product to fight Winston's particular problem. Dogs with floppy ears are notorious for having ear trouble and they need a foaming cleanser to bring wax and other debris to the surface.

We didn't try the ear cleaner yet. Bet that'll be fun.

The thing that was of most concern was that the vet was worried about Winston's gait. He was aware of the "rolling gait" that OEM's have, but felt he might be having some trouble with his hips. Nothing serious, just something for us to be aware of. He had The Hub take him out and walk him in the parking lot so he could observe his walk ( You can see why Dr. Hatchling IS so highly recommended!) "I'd like to keep an eye on that. Lets see if you can get his weight down - not much - about 20 pounds or so. Table food is okay, but make it the good stuff, like carrots, celery. No more donuts for you, Big Guy!" he said to Winston "...and try him on some glucosomene. We'll just watch it. You all are aware that this breed -"

I could see him struggling between "ages quickly" and "is short lived" so I said, "Yes, I know, he already has grey in his muzzle and he's about to turn 4. We'll keep a sharp eye on it and bring him back if anything seems worse."

"I bet if he just loses a little weight he'll avoid difficulty" said Dr. Hatchling, encouragingly. "Remember: there are as many calories in a milk bone as there are in a serving of food!"

Good grief! We've got a whole lotta dog!