I took Asbjørn to the vet yesterday to have them check out a growth he’s got on his gum. After poking around online, I concluded that it was most likely not cancerous, but I did also read that surgery is really the only treatment for these things. Given that he’s thirteen years old and he’s got a liver condition, I figured sedating him was probably out of the question, but I wanted to have it looked at just to be sure.

As it turns out, Google had told me pretty much everything I needed to know, and I probably could have saved us a trip and a bit of money. The risks of putting him under anesthesia are greater than the risk of just leaving his mouth alone, especially considering that he’s feeling so perky and the growth isn’t bothering him. I suppose if it does start hurting him or interfering with his eating, we might have to do some more thinking, but there’s no sense borrowing trouble.

His liver levels are still rather high, but you’d never know anything was wrong to look at him. The vet even said that it was “a miracle” he was feeling so good with such high liver numbers. I guess that’s a bit of a mixed review, but he does appear to be in remarkably good shape so I’m not going to dwell on the numbers (much, MUCH lower than they were in January, by the way). While we were there yesterday, we did get some dietary supplements that are supposed to support liver function, so my hope is that at his next blood test in a couple of months we’ll see even more improvement.