The Cone of Shame

So just a few days ago, you got your Benny fix and today, I was all set to introduce you to some of our sweet deer who have been coming around since winter has settled in.

But no. Benny had other plans.

He's such an attention hog!

No, not really. Here's what happened.

On and off, over the past few weeks, Benny has had a rather goopy eye. Some mornings, he would be in need of a warm, wet washcloth in order to clean him up. There was no redness. No swelling. And no pain. We didn't think too much about it. We figured he might have scratched it on something... like a cat's paw.

On Wednesday afternoon, Frank happened to notice a big dark glob in his eye. I thought it was some dried crusty bits which sometimes form in the corners but it was rather large for that. I tried to wipe it away but soon realized that it was fixed to his lower eyelid. And it didn't look right. It seemingly appeared out of nowhere but Frank figured that it had probably been growing behind his lower lid and flipped up once it became large enough.


This image was taken in low light, without flash from across the room, earlier that same day. It was before we had noticed but if had I taken a good look at this photo, I might have seen it sitting there in his left eye.

A quick call to the vet got me an appointment for the following morning.

The clinic is an hour from our place. Once she had a good look at Benny's eye, she advised me that she felt she should remove the growth right that day. She concurred with what Frank had surmised, which helped to absolve us of guilt for not noticing sooner. She had other appointments to attend to and wouldn't be able to perform the surgery for a few hours.

Enter Carol Anne!

My dear friend spends most of her time in near(ish)by Peterborough. I had time to kill and Carol Anne helped me fill it. We met for lunch at a diner about fifteen minutes away from the veterinary clinic and about a half hour from Carol Anne's significant others place. The time went quickly as it always does when we're together and before I knew it, I was getting a text from the clinic advising me that all went well and that I could come get our Benny.

What the doctor thought was a deep-rooted tumour, was in fact two. The large visible one and a smaller one underneath it. She felt that the small one was benign but could not feel certain about the larger one so she sent them off for analysis. We'll know more about that in about a week. Hopefully it was also benign and if not, the next best thing would be to know that she got it all. That's the information we're waiting for.

In the meantime, Benny has very fine, dissolvable stitches in his lower lid and it must be kept well protected until his follow up visit in about ten days.

Yup, that's right. The boy has to wear...


The Cone of Shame.

Poor Benny. He keeps crunching up against things and scooping up snow with the cone when he tries to sniff out a good place to pee. It took him a few jolts before he figured out that he had to hold his head up to go upstairs. He's doing a lot better with it but it's pathetic to see him try to scratch his ears through the plastic. If one of us hears him tapping on the cone, we'll help him out by scratching the area he's after. The funny thing is that he thinks he's having the affect on his itch and just keeps on scratching the cone.

Anyway, he's a little trooper and I only feel mildly guilty for using him and his condition for my Photoshop (and Illustrator) entertainment.


He's a real little gentleman about it all.

Of course these ideas have all be blatantly stolen from fun photo shoots already out there in various Googled images. Most were far more creative than this. They actually built props for their pets rather than take the easy digital route. But I suspect that Benny wouldn't have sat still long enough for that, anyway.


J-R-Tini, anyone?




Ah yes, he really ought to be in pictures.

Please keep our boy in your best thoughts? I'll update you on his results shortly after I hear.