Eva, Surgery...

Well we are back and with us being back, Eva is at the Vet this morning having surgery. As you can see from the picture, Eva has a large bump on her right leg. This bump has been there for quite sometime, but at the beginning of last week if decided to grow. It started to impede Eva's ability to walk. She started to limp and if she tried to run it put her up for the rest of the day. Last Monday (March 3) I was going to call the vet and set up an appointment, but it didn't seem to be all that bad so we decided to wait thinking that it just got inflamed when she decided to run out the door like a puppy (which she does often). I may have forgotten to mention that Eva is an 80 pound 13 1/2 year old dog. Running like a puppy should not be what she is doing.

On Friday Morning Eva's foot was looking worse so we decided to see if our vet could look at her. The prognosis was that the bump created an abscess. The filling of pus made it grow and grow. We were given some pain killers and antibiotics to hopefully take care of the inflammation. We were told to soak it two to three times a day and this should allow for the abscess to "burst" open and we could take care of it that way. They felt this was the best thing to do so we wouldn't have to put Eva under.

We then headed down to Mark's mother's. We got there Friday night and by Saturday morning Eva's foot had swelled to twice it's normal size, red, and bleeding a little. She could hardly put any weight on it and mainly laid on the floor where we put here. We called the vet again (they are great) and she told us to soak the foot more often. This would help with the pain and since it was bleeding a little, it would more than likely "burst" soon - joy!

So we soaked and soaked and just like Eva, the bump was being stubborn. Nothing happened. Another thing you need to know about Eva is that she HATES to get her feet wet. If it had just rained and she needs to go out, she will walk on her tip-toes just so her whole foot doesn't get wet. While we were at Mark's moms, it poured all day Saturday. There was a little snow, but not much. Eva needed to go out. I carried her to the door and down the stairs and then she started to walk around. She walked to an area that had some snow and just like a 13 year old dog (who thinks herself a puppy) she dove into the snow and started to roll around. Legs in the air, rain hitting her, and her tail wagging away.

We got back last night (Sunday) and made another call to the vet. Told her that it wasn't getting better and that she hasn't pooped in three days (can't balance) and the painkillers don't seem to be working well. So this morning I took our little old lady in to have surgery. They are going to be opening up the bump and letting all the pus out. In some way I am glad they are doing it and not me having to deal with it.

But it doesn't stop there. Eva is the type of dog that HATES stitches. Stitches are the devils work and she needs to pull them out. When she had surgery two to three years ago, we had to take turns watching her through the night. Mark would stay up with her until 3a.m and then wake me to take over. So if she needs stitches again, this is how it goes: baby isn't sleeping calmly through the night, Mark is starting new Marketing classes (two this term), I ma finishing up my finals for my classes (two) and watching Eva's foot and making sure she doesn't pull the stitches out. Pray for us - it will be a long week.