Ok, it's time to talk about something personal...warts...

Dog warts I mean...afterall, this IS a dog's blog remember?!

Last spring I had Vivi on her back to clip her nails.  When her flews fell towards the floor I noticed this thing in her mouth (remember, bulldogs are the educators of dogs if you pay attention!).  I'm a picker...I can't help it.  So of course my hand IMMEDIATELY went in her mouth & I was touching it, squeezing it, looked through the rest of her mouth...made both Howie & Doc come over & I looked in their mouth's...what the heck is this thing??

WARNING...this photo also prompted me to start brushing her teeth more often!!  

See it?  It's about 1/2 inch under my finger, to the right of the dirty tooth...

Photo A

So the next day I went online & searched "thing in dog's mouth"...and POOF!  Dog warts!  Great.  Dog warts.  Why must I keep learning these things??  Can't I just NOT learn something new regarding my dogs' health??

Dog warts...sounds much, much worse than what they are.  However, they are very contagious (remember how I started digging through Howie & Doc's mouths too...great) & there really is no treatment except time.  Fantastic.  The incubation period is about 1 month after being exposed & takes about 4-8 weeks for the warts to go away!  Perfect.

Usually only young dogs get dog warts because their immune systems aren't fully developed.  Which made sense in Vivi's case & gave me some relief in that Howie & Doc wouldn't get them...and they didn't.  Also, once the dog gets dog warts, they cannot get them again.  Kinda like chicken pox in humans.  Our vet did say I could put Vitamin E oil on the warts if it made me feel better, however, the only reason it will "work" is because it's the time that's really making the warts go away.  Of course I still put some Vitamin E on it...but it was probably just time that took care of them.

This photo was taken 3 days after photo A.  You can see it had already gone down in size.

Photo B

I'm positive Vivi was exposed at a dog show & was scheduled to be in a show the following weekend, but I couldn't in good faith knowingly expose other dogs to the warts.  So I didn't show her that weekend.  Thankfully, her next show wasn't for almost a month after I found the warts & they were gone by then!

Since I want this blog to be helpful for other dog owners, I thought I'd post about....dog warts.

Here are some more photos on the progression of her warts & some other bully friends who have gotten them too.  There is no shame in dog warts, just ugly sea-creature looking things that, as a picker, you just want to pop, pick or twist off...but that's not good..don't do that...they could spread.

Another 2 days later from photo B

Photo C

About 1 week after photo A

Photo D

1 Month after Photo A

Photo E

Remember bullies...there is no shame in having dog warts...your immune system just isn't strong yet.  Just be sure to stay home from shows, classes & play dates with other puppies until your warts clear up, ok?

Thanks for visiting...and now, be honest, how many of you went to grab the anti-bacterial gel after this post??