Friday, June 24, 2011

Gypsy Goes Under The Knife

Gypsy is getting up there in age.  I adopted her back in 2006 from the animal shelter where they guessed that she around 3 or 4 years old.


She was there when I moved into my first post college apartment with my roommate (which did not work out) and was there when I moved into my first solo apartment.  Her life is pretty awesome as she has free range of the apartment during the day and is always spoiled when we head to my parents' house.

A while after I adopted her I started to notice this bump on her back.  I brought it up to the Vet who said that it would come and go but that she was in no pain so it was ok.  I left it at that, assuming that it would go away.  It never did.  

I always bring it up on her vet visits, and the story started to change.  First her thought that it was puss filled, so he poked it with a needle only to see blood come out.  Next visit I was told that it was non cancerous, but that the only way to get rid of it was a pricey surgery.  The vet advised to just keep an eye on it and if it ever grew to schedule the surgery.  When we returned from our honeymoon I noticed that she now had a similar but bigger bump right near her tail.


I worried more about this one since it was larger and near her tail, where she could easily get to and bite at it. On Thursday, I called my normal Vet in Allen but they did not have any openings until the following Monday.  After a quick google search I located another Vet closer to where we lived who also happened to be a graduate of the Texas A&M Vet school.  They had an opening the next day, so in we went. $51 later, I learned that it was the same non cancerous bump as the one on her back and this time surgery was highly suggested to removed both bumps as well as a little wart closer to her neck.

They gave me a breakdown of the cost (really, $110 for anesthesia alone??) and I promptly made the appointment for the next week.  I told Chris about the cost and he said that these types of sudden medical expenses are something we would have to get used to with kids.  After a pretty quick surgery and day of rest at the Vet, I was able to pick her.  She looked so sad with the shaved patches, but other than that seemed to be pretty much herself.


To prevent her from biting at her stitches, she was forced to wear the dreaded cone.  I always felt so bad about putting it on, but any time I wanted to give her a chance without, she would head straight for those stitches near her tail so back on it went.



Thankfully we were able to get the stitches out after 10 days and her fur is slowly growing back in those patches.  I'm so happy to have my lazy, trouble maker back to her usual self!

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