Today is Lizzy’s big operation day to remove a suspicious looking mole / spot on her belly. She is not allowed breakfast so we thought we would take a nice walk so she would not notice the change of routine. We walked down to Praia do Almargem again but this time down the eastern side. Then the path goes along the beach with lovely long views along the beach. Despite a big sign right across the road saying no motorhomes on the way down there were three of four camped out. It was a fabulous spot right on the back of the beach on the edge of woodland.
We managed to find the route through the woods on the way back and back through the estate. We arrived with 30mins to spare for Lizzy to cool down and for me to remove all the sticky seeds from her coat before we take her to the vets 😳
Lizzy was a bit reluctant to be led away at the vets even though all the staff are lovely there. I learned that they would remove the tissue of the growth and send it and the margin tissue off to labs to check if it is malignant and that all the offending cells have been removed. The results will take approximately a week to come through as they have to go to histology. If the margin tissue analysis shows that not all of the malignant tissue (if it is malignant) is removed then she would need follow up surgery to remove the margins.
We have planned to hopefully meet some friends in the south of France towards the end of May and only have to the end of June until our time in Europe will be up. We have therefore decided to carry on over the next week in the local area but we have to return for a check up on Lizzy’s stitches in a week’s time. We could of course try another vet further up but we have been very happy with the vets here and would rather drive back. Fingers crossed though that the growth was not malignant and this precautionary surgery has resolved the issue.
Next on the list was to try and get a bigger tap fitting to fit the larger fittings we keep finding in Spain and Portugal which means we can’t use our usual hose set up to refill the fresh water tanks. We have not come across a hardware store so far with one so have decided to hunt one out now that the shops are open again after the weekend. There were three potential drogeria’s nearby, all in opposite directions, obviously. A review of Google maps pictures to guess if they may stick what we need, we pick our target only 1 mile away. By the time we arrived Lola collapsed out on the floor panting to the extent a passing customer asked if she was ok, despite two cool-off stops and water on the way. Luckily this shop had what we needed as we really did not want to walk her any further.
On the way back we were passing Restaurant Monteiro’s and decided to stop in for a coffee for Lola to cool down on their cold tiled floor. As noon arrived the place was filled with Portuguese workers coming in for lunch. Kevin was still suffering order envy from my Gilthead Bream yesterday so of course we then had to stay for lunch so he could have some. There was a moment of panic when the daily changing blackboard menu came out filled with local dishes of cheek, sausage, bean and mixed meat stew etc, but no bream. Luckily our friendly waitress revealed that was just the day’s specials and sea bream was still available. Phew!
We could finally pick up Lizzy at 3pm, we’d all been feeling a bit bereft without her today. She was very pleased to see us, as we were her. All had gone well with the surgery and she now has a snazzy little pink number to wear for the week.
In for a Penney 