Two weeks ago today my husband was brushing Ralph when he discovered a big lump on his bottom. We tried to tell ourselves that he had sat on a sliver or something, but that didn't make sense, because it didn't seem to hurt him at all.
So, Monday morning I called the vet... and found that I couldn't get an appointment until Thursday. The week was long, and Thursday was even longer while we waited for news that Ralph had come out of the anesthetic. After knowing of people who died from anesthetic, just the idea of it makes me nervous.
We went to get him and the vet said we'd have the lab results back on the tumor in a "couple of days." OK... so Monday maybe.
All went pretty well the first day, except for worrying because Ralph was completely lethargic. On the second day when it appeared that the pain pills were upsetting his stomach, we decided they weren't such a good idea. He was supposed to have 2 in the morning and 2 at night, but we stopped giving them to him.
I had gone on line and found the same kind of side-effects that killed our dog Harry when the vet prescribed Rimadyl and I obeyed.
That was still OK until late that night. Apparently that's how long it took for that heavy dose of pain medication to work its way out of his system.
About midnight Ralph started chewing on his stitches... not a good thing!
I finally gave him one pain pill and sat beside him, preventing him from chewing, until he fell asleep. The next day I borrowed one of those big plastic collars from my neighbor, but it turned out that one pill at about 10 or 11 at night was the right balance. Ralph stopped chewing his stitches, but wasn't lethargic and didn't have an upset tummy.
We were still worried, and wondering when we'd hear about the test results. Finally on Wednesday the vet called... a benign tumor that probably will not re-occur.
Thank God.
No comments:
Post a Comment