Little Miss Lamp Shade Head

That's right.
She's not a princess anymore. Or rather, she's royalty with a different kind of head wear.
Hermione is wearing the cone of shame.
Yesterday we brought her to the vet. A new vet I might add, who was very good and actually has emergency appointments available. Who would have thought?!
 It was so strange because it seemed like she was healing, but all of a sudden around 5 last evening, a check of her bum made us hustle to the vet clinic.
Since realising last Wednesday that Hermione's anal gland had ruptured Mr. K and I have been doing a twice daily, sometimes three times daily, routine of cleaning her anal glands and putting anti-biotic ointment on the area. She seemed to be getting better. Her energy was returning, her bum was wagging and her appetite had come back in full force. A check of the area Sunday evening put her in the clear. It looked good. However, last night I had a funny feeling and asked someone to look at it again.
Hermione had seemed fine earlier in the day and even when I had the funny feeling, she seemed pretty much herself; except that she was lying much closer to me than normal. You try not to read into these things. Anything could cause behaviour changes in your animals and since they can't tell you what's going on, you could drive yourself mad trying to interpret their every change. However, her body felt warm. Granted, it was a warm day and the house was pretty warm, but knowing that she was just barely out of the woods, I had her looked at.
Good thing I did because the area that had been free of redness and clean the night before was inflamed with one side of the gland appearing to be entirely red and hard and the other being covered with a clear film. It was apparently also bulbous. This was cause for alarm. We had been battling with this thing for over a week. It was time to go to the vet, and as I said above, a different one than our original one.
I called the vet and told them we'd be in very quickly. They are within walking distance and we arrived within 30 minutes of me calling. Hermione walked the whole way and was even excited about being out and about. It was a good thing that she was showing visible symptoms because judging by how she pranced along, you'd never know that she was fighting an infection.
The vet was a bit busy when we arrived, but Hermione was quickly weighed and then whisked off to have her bum looked after. Basically, they had to lance the area, flush it and then she'd be good to go. We warned the vet that Hermione was a drama queen, but not a biter. Strangely enough, Hermione didn't complain once. They gave her an anti-biotic injection that sits under the skin for two weeks and some pain killers. We were given some pain killers for home and instructed to give her one a day until they were gone. The vet said it was good we had brought her in because her temperature was slightly higher than normal. Even now I think her temperature is a bit high, but I think it's because the medicine is doing its job and she's fighting off the foreign bodies invading her little fuzziness.
On top of the pain killers we were also given a "cone of shame" for her to wear. She's a bit obsessive and keeping her from licking/chewing at the area has been difficult. With the collar though, she's not able to get to it at all. I do have to take it off of her when taking her out for bathroom breaks because she refuses to walk around with it on. She's such a particular little thing. At least she's getting rest since she refuses to go anywhere with the collar on. I have to be really vigilant when I take it off for bathroom breaks because she instantly attacks her butt.
So, Hermione's battle with problematic anal glands continues, but with the assistance of some strong drugs she should be back to normal soon. The vet said that the glands may be problematic for her for the rest of her life, but then again maybe not. If they continue to cause her issues, we may explore the option of having her anal glands removed. It's a risky surgery so there are a lot of things to consider. I had Jetta's glands removed in the first year of us working together. I didn't know then what I do now about diet, but you never know what will work. I thought Hermione's diet was suiting her and maybe it is. These glands can be tricky little things that really serve no purpose for the domesticated dog.
For now, I'll continue to feed Hermione her pureed pumpkin and blueberries and hope that she recovers quickly so that she can take the ridiculous collar off sooner rather than later.
Poor Little Miss Lamp Shade Head.