I always thought Dan was a funny guy. That was until I got to know his wife, Jo, better. Then I realized that Dan is actually the straight man in the family. Not that there’s anything wrong with that but his wife is a lot funnier.

So you can imagine my delight when I saw them on our appointment schedule, along with their dog Manny, of course. Manny is a 5-year-old Lhasa Apso mix, who like the rest of his family, really enjoys life — the kind of dog that always puts a smile on my face.
Manny was in the office this day for his distemper and bordetella vaccine boosters, as well as an anal gland “tune-up.” In his chart, our technician Angela also wrote “licking himself a lot lately.”

Thinking that this must be some type of skin issue, I gave him a thorough going over from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail, under his belly, and up and down each of his legs. But, I could find no lesions of any kind — no sign of fleas, no Staph infection pimples, not even any redness. Somewhat exasperated at this point, I finally asked his owners, “Isn’t he supposed to be biting or chewing or licking his skin somewhere?”