Last vet clinic visit for awhile ... I hope

[SFM in KY]

Tessa, the GSD we got from the county animal shelter last spring will be coming home tomorrow from what I hope will be the last vet clinic visit for awhile. She has been so sweet, patient, well behaved, well trained and quiet in the house except when she knows she's going to get to go for a ride in the pickup! She adores DH, must have been a man's dog before and I suspect got to go with him often. It's been good to see DH and Tessa bond, as she's obviously had some tough breaks and I don't think DH has ever had a dog that was so emphatically his dog before.

She often sleeps in his chair when he's not in the house, waiting for him.



But it's been a long haul ... first heartworm treatment. Had not realized just how long that took and how hard on a dog it was. Thankfully, successful. Today took her in for spaying. She's not a young dog (vet thinks 4, maybe 5) and obviously had more than one litter of pups.

She also has a cyst/lesion on the lower part of the tail that wouldn't heal, tried several different things and there was no change except for it getting just slightly larger. She also has a somewhat crippled/crooked rear leg, suspect she may have been hit by a car at some point in time and no idea whether the damage was very severe and it was repaired by surgery and just too much damage to completely repair or if the previous owners just let it heal on it's own and it healed crooked. So since she was going to be under anesthesia for the spay, told the vet to do whatever necessary about the cyst on the tail and take X-rays of the leg/hip as well. That way we will have a baseline to work from as she gets older, if the leg starts giving her problems.

Called tonight ... spay went fine. Lower part of the tail had to be amputated to get all of the cyst. X-rays taken but vet hadn't had a chance to read them yet. She will come home in the morning.

I am just so grateful to have her ... just wish I knew the history. As kind and well behaved as she is ... and obviously has been a full time house dog, it seems more likely that she was lost somehow rather than deliberately abandoned.

[bluetick]

She looks like a sweetheart! I hope she has a long and healthy life now.

[beccachow]

Sweet!! Keep us updated about tomorrow's vet evaluation.

[gapeach]

She looks so sweet and so happy too for her good home and family. I hope she will have a long and healthy life now.

[SFM in KY]

Good news/bad news. Good news is that she came through everything fine.

The spay was uneventful other than the ovaries were enlarged and cystic, vet said he had never seen so many cysts and that was probably giving her some problems, just not obvious and would have caused serious issues in the near future so good it got done. She will be on antibiotics just 'in case' for a few days.

The 'cyst' on the tail was, in fact a tumor, appeared to be a rather aggressive one in fact so the tail amputation was fairly extreme, they took about 2/3 of it to be sure it was as complete as possible. Again, good that it was taken care of before it got any further.

Bad news is that the rear leg injury is probably not an injury but from fairly severe hip dysplasia that will give her ongoing problems as time goes on. Nothing that can be done for that, but at least we know what the situation is and I will start her on a glucosamine/MSM supplement right away to do what we can.

The really good news ... the total bill for both spay and amputation was $130 ... and the X-rays were $75. There were medications, etc. as well, but the total was still under $310 and I got a very expensive (stainless steel) grooming comb which was $45 of that total.

[gapeach]

The bill here would have easily been 3-4 times that much.
So good you were able to get the tail tumor taken care of.
The Displasia is manageable usually with the joint supports meds that are available now. We had surgery done on one of our dogs. It was hard on him and us too. I hope she recovers well.

[SFM in KY]

Originally Posted by gapeach

The bill here would have easily been 3-4 times that much.The Displasia is manageable usually with the joint supports meds that are available now. We had surgery done on one of our dogs. It was hard on him and us too.

The bill would have been significantly more here if I went to one of the 'small animal only' vets in town. My vet is in a small town and is a large animal/farm vet as well as doing small animals, so does my horses as well as dogs and cats. I've found this to be pretty universal ... a ranch/farm vet that does everything is usually not as expensive as an in-town 'small animal only' vet clinic. They wouldn't stay in business charging farmers/ranchers the same kind of $$ for livestock as the small animal vets charge for poodles!

I had Rottweilers for years and had some experience with dysplasia, though not much. Knew someone with a Rott that did have the surgery done for dysplasia and they didn't think it was as effective as it should have been, as well as being hard on the dog.

I'm hoping with the improvement in supplements over the last 20 years or so, the supplements will be more effective.

[Minelson]

Tessa is so pretty! I just love GSD's and have my eye on a pup right now. So glad it went well! Hugs for you and Tessa!