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closeAbout a month ago my friend Paul noticed a large lump on his dog, Cisco’s, back leg. He kept an eye on it and noticed how much Cisco was licking it and that it was growing. Cisco needed a checkup, so it was off to the vet.
A vet at VCA Animal Hospital, who has been seeing the dogs for years, looked at the lump and said that it needed to be removed. The “mass” would keep growing, Cisco was going to keep licking it and eventually it would rupture. The doctor also recommended sending it out for a biopsy.
Because Cisco is still kind of my dog, too, I offered to pay half for the surgery — it was going to be a good chunk of change. Our main concern was Cisco having surgery at his age — he turned 12 this summer — and spending several hundred dollars to have this surgery to find out he had cancer and might have to be put to sleep.
The vet addressed all of our concerns. He recommended the surgery and biopsy and told us he thought Cisco was healthy and would do fine with the surgery.
So a week later, Cisco went into surgery, and I was in charge of picking him up in the afternoon. It was a nerve-wracking day of waiting for the phone to ring and my heart pounding every time it did. As the day went along there was no word from the vet. I took this as a good sign — if there had been problems the vet would have called.
At 4 p.m. I called. Cisco had done fine, the surgery had gone well and he was awake and ready to be picked up.
Cisco stumbled out of the back room, groggy and with a cone collar. He looked at me and weakly wagged his tail. I thanked Dr. D., and Cisco and I headed to Paul’s house.
Of course, he was still on lots of meds and walking was not an easy task. He fell trying to climb up the stairs, so I had to carry him into the house. He crashed into everything with the cone. Finally, he made it to his dog bed and lay down. The vet had told me that he would probably whimper and cry as the meds wore off — and he did. After a good night’s sleep, Cisco was much better.
A couple of days later the vet’s office called with the biopsy results — it wasn’t a tumor or cancer. Apparently Cisco had had some sort of small abrasion or cut and had licked it so much it had abscessed. He was perfectly healthy and ready for many more years.
If you have a story and/or photos of your furry, feathered or scaly friend, please e-mail me or mail to Pet Tales, c/o The Tribune, P.O. Box 112, San Luis Obispo, CA 93406.
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