Lisa's Vet Procedure

Over the last few months, I had been keeping tabs on a lump on Lisa's backside. Not to go into gross detail of the exact location of this anomaly, let's just say it's with in 1 1/2 inches of an area frequently used for bowel evacuation and leave it at that. ;-) We all know that as dogs age, they get bumps and skin tags here and there. We can choose to have them removed or watch them and act on them at later time.

In Lisa's case, she has a few that the vet and I discussed already, but this one kinda surprised me. Beardies tend to need a good butt-check and subsequent butt-wash now and again because of debris and feces being caught in the hair back there - not any fault of the dog or their digestive system, just nature of living with a long haired dog. It was at this time that I found this lump. It didn't seem to bother her when I touched, so I decided to do a little research online and keep an eye on it.

As the months progressed, the lump didn't really change much. However, the area around it did. In the last few weeks, Lisa had begun biting at her rear and as a result, she ulcerated the skin around one of her anal sacs. This prompted further investigation into lump. The vet and I agreed it was best to have the lump removed. So last week, Lisa went in and had the procedure. While she was out, we also had a full abdomen x-ray done and her teeth were cleaned up. I figure rather than have her put under anesthesia again, better to make good use of it while she was out.

I, of course, was a nervous wreck and resorted to the nearest shopping mall for some holiday retail therapy to take my mind off matters. ;-) It almost worked...almost. I knew she was incapable hands - that wasn't my worry. My concern was over her in post-op. If you remember, it was in her post-op recovery hours from her last procedure that she bloated. It was comforting to know that if she did bloat again, it wouldn't be AS bad as it was since her stomach had been tacked; she wouldn't torsion again. But, still I would prefer to avoid the entire scenario altogether. Since the bloating incident did not happen on this vet's watch, I was very thorough in making sure they understood she was a high risk dog and all necessary precautions were taken. Additionally, I took some additional steps of my own and brought a shirt I had worn to have in her cage with her, so when she'd wake up, she'd smell something familiar. That, plus us having been at the office the week before and Lisa getting a good dose of love from the staff set us up for a good outcome.

And that's exactly what we had! Thank the Lord! Lisa came through her procedure again with flying colors. She was quiet and never fussed and never showed any bit of anxiety. When I picked her up, she acted tired, but was ready to go with me wherever I wanted to go. When I got her back to the house and The Boys got to "debrief" her, I fed her a little canned I-D with some chicken broth on it and she gobbled it up. My Lisa was indeed back!

It's been almost a week and she's healing up nicely. Haven't heard back from the vet on the results of the biopsy yet, but the x-ray only showed a little arthritis in her back, so that was good news. This week we get to celebrate Lisa's first Christmas as a free dog! I can't wait to celebrate it with her and the New Year!

Completely Unrelated Notes:
Apologies for not being able to keep up regular status reports on Lisa. Another rescue has been taking great amounts of my time. I'll post some info about her remarkable story when I can.

I'm attempting to get more pictures up of Lisa and enhance her site a bit. If I get the time, I'll actually design her something of her own! My main goal, however, was to get the information out there to be able to help others. Design has to come second to that! :-)