Molly has been scratching her scab and created a new bald spot, so I decided I should invest in a visit to the vet. I hadn’t done so already because she didn’t seem bothered by the scabs and last year they just went away. But if she’s hurtin’ I want it checked out.

They did a thorough skin check and found another big scab under her chin that I didn’t know about. After discussing possibilities, we decided to have a skin scrape done. My vet’s office is awesome, friendly staff, very modern looking, and hosts their own surgery, pathology, and radiology clinics. After her scrape Molly was returned to our exam room looking quite grumpy, on top of her already severe nervousness. Within 10 minutes the vet came in saying “There’s a party on her back!” As she suspected, Molly had a secondary bacterial infection, which are quite itchy. The vet ruled out mites or other parasites and only saw 1 or 2 cells which would have indicated diet allergy.

So we don’t know what caused the initial scratching, just that now it’s infected. But at least we are able to treat her with antibiotics to get rid of the infection. “This isn’t going away on its own,” she said. Ben will have the pleasure of getting Molly to take two pills twice a day, starting on Tuesday after we get back from San Francisco.

Molly looks relieved, but I’m pretty sure it’s because she’s back at home, away from the lady who pokes her belly. I tried to tell Molly that at least they didn’t stick anything up her bum this time.