Oh, it's going to be an expensive week!
This afternoon I had the longest vet appointment in history! Bandit was booked for an appointment at 2, but I decided to take Paxil along. Vet wasn't sure he had time to see both of them and after some discussion he decided that Paxil was more urgent. She hasn't eaten since Thursday night--not a bite, no matter what I've offered her, she won't eat. So given her history(two bouts of cancer and one near fatal fight with pancreatitis), the vet thought a full work up was in order.
Paxil, of course, did not act sick during the exam at all! She was snuggling up to Dr. Kim, giving him kisses. She yelped once during the whole thing and that was with deep spinal palpation. She likely has some athritis starting in there--she is 10 years old and has always been a working dog, but that's not causing her loss of appetite. She's moving just fine, just not as much as usual. Blood work was done next. She's showing some signs of dehydration(duh, didn't need expensive tests to tell me that!), but no signs of kidney, heart or liver disease. Phew! Her pancreatic enzyemes are elevated. Not to the point that she can be diagnoised with full pancreatitis, but enough that Dr. Kim thinks that could be the problem. He thinks if we can get her hydrated that she'll start to feel good enough to eat a bit.
So I spent a long time with one of the techs learning how to do sub-q fluids. Everyone at the clinic was very suprised that I have never had to do them before! Paxil got about half a bag at the clinic and I have to give her more for a couple days. She is not thrilled with the process, but she's pretty cooperative.
When we were finally done with Paxil, Dr. Kim had time to see Bandit too. Bandit has a meilobian cyst on his eye. It's a benign tumor. He had one a few weeks ago in the exact same spot that was removed just by freezing his eyelid. The vet said it would come back, but thought it would be a few months. Well, it took 3 weeks for it to return and start irritating Bandit again. So this time he has to have the more invasive surgery. They will resect his eyelid, remove the area that the cyst is in and stitch it closed again. It has some potential complications, but all surgery does. He will have a full blood panel done before they put him under. Bandit is pushing 10 years old and hasn't been under anasethic in several years. His surgery is scheduled for this Friday.
We didn't get out of the clinic until close to 6pm! Never had a four hour appointment before! Today's bill wasn't as much as I was expecting, but the estimate for Bandit's surgery is steep! I have a big group of dogs who either already are or who are approaching "senior" status. I expect a lot of big bills over the next couple years! (and they are worth every dime)
