| Jan. 3rd, 2005 @ 11:44 pm Belle's Bad Week |
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Mood:  anxious
Sound: Nyarlathotep - "A3 Systems Malfunction"
I didn’t talk about it in my journal, but Belle had a couple of disastrous vet visits last week. During the first visit, on Monday, our vet did a general checkup. First, he pegged her at 8 years old, well outside the 3 - 5 range the rescue agency had told us (but, frankly, this didn’t surprise me too much; Belle does not move like a young dog). He examined her ears and found an ear infection (easily treated), and then moved on to her hips. While feeling around her hips, he found some lumps in her breast and immediately identified them as cancerous growths … telling us there’s a 50/50 chance they’re malignant and deadly. Needless to say, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) velocityb0y and I were very surprised, and more than a little distraught; we immediately scheduled a surgical appointment for Thursday, to have them removed.
On Thursday, after putting her under anesthesia for the surgery, the vet checked her mouth, looking for the source of her atrocious breath. He found a fragment of food (a little piece of a Greenie) lodged in her gumline. The little piece of food had begun to fester, creating an ulcer at the base of one of her molars (while also causing one of the rankest smells imaginable). He ended up having to remove the entire tooth. Also, while she was under, the vet x-rayed her hips (a notorious weakness in German Shepherds) and found severe hip dysplasia on her right side… The hip dysplasia goes a long way towards explaining her slow walking gait and arthritis, and it’ll be something velocityb0y and I will have to deal with – whether getting her hip replaced, or just keeping her on pain medication – once we learn more about her cancer.
Finally, after the mouth exam and the x-ray, the vet operated, removing the strand of cancerous growths from her breast. Apparently, this wasn’t a very difficult operation – the lumps were right beneath the skin – but he did have to switch from scalpel to laser halfway through, to staunch excessive bleeding. And, as soon as she was sewn back up, the vet had the lumps sent off to a pathologist for analysis.
We still haven’t heard if the growths are malignant or benign, but we’re expecting the lab results Tuesday, Wednesday, or maybe Thursday. In the meantime, velocityb0y and I are dangling on tenterhooks.
So, in summary, the vet found an ear infection, an impacted molar, severe hip dysplasia, and cancer. Plus, he thinks she might be much older than we’d previously believed… Altogether, not a very good week for Belle… But, considering all the crap she’s been through, she’s been handling it like a trooper. She seems very attached to her people, and I hope she realizes we’d do everything in our power to keep her healthy and happy.
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sore
happy
okay
tired
silly
