Highlight

Checking on what I'm up to.

If you look at his lower jaw, you'll see that his left mandible (on your right) is enlarged. Highlight arrived three years ago with some tell-tale mandibular enlargement (I already have far too much first-hand experience with lower molar root abscesses) and sure enough, the molar abscess flared up shortly after that. $$$. The standard treatment used to be removal of the offending tooth, but the expert llama dental surgeon at OSU-VTH didn't want to do the surgery while Highlight was so young for fear of injuring open growth plates, and also stated that he is now generally (for all llamas) in favor of subduing the infection with long-term antibiotics. Highlight has been a GREAT sport about the injections (in addition to the initial 2-month treatment, the infection flared up a second time this winter ... for another two months of antibiotics), but now that he's older, I'm really leaning towards a more permanent solution. Even if it will be $$$. Dusty's take on the surgery was that it was definitely the way to go.