Monday, April 27, 2009

Simon Update

Some of you know that my little guy went through some big trouble recently. This explains part of my absence from blogging. First, I was busy with a few events happening, which I did start to blog about, (and will be posting soon) but then Simon wasn't well, so I was occupied with him.
A couple of weeks ago, it looked, to both Jim and I, like Simon had a bit of a swollen face on one side. We were keeping an eye on it, but it seemed to go away. Then a few days later, it looked like his face was swollen again. The second time, we called the vet and booked an appt. to take him in. They assumed from our description on the phone that it was his allergies acting up. After all, it's spring and everything is starting to sprout and he has been itchier than normal.
Jim took Simon into see Dr. Woolard while I was at work, and upon examination, she found out that Simon had a cracked molar that had abscessed. That's why his face was swollen. By us giving him a vanectyl-p for his itching, it also took the swelling in his face down. They asked if Simon was an aggressive chewer and yes, he can be. He was prescribed antibiotics, and sent home for a few days. He was not to be given any other drugs, but antibiotics were to be administered twice a day for 5-6 days until they were well into his system and doing their thing and he was booked in for an extraction. We decided that while he was under, we'd have his teeth cleaned as well. It would save him the trauma of having to be put under anesthetic again at a later date.
This is how he looked a first. There is some swelling around his eye and nose.

Then things started to get worse. We were told that he wouldn't be in pain like a human would with an abscessed tooth and in fact, he was playing and running around like normal.

Things were really getting bad. I was really concerned. The vet assured us that this may happen and it may in fact pop before he was to go in for the extraction and if that did happen, not to be alarmed. That never happened. It just kept swelling.

This was the absolute worst. I took this picture the day before he was to go in for his appt. Later in the afternoon, the swelling started to go down and by night time, it was significantly reduced. I don't know if it did pop inside, or if it had just run it's course and starting draining on it's own.

He was not to eat after 10pm and Jim dropped him off at the vet's in the morning. I called to check on him around 1:30 and they said everything had gone smoothly, and in fact, while I was on the phone, Simon was standing up in his crate looking around. I was stuck at work until 8pm, so Jim picked him up around 4pm. They gave Jim the teeth - it ended up he needed 2 of them out! Both were cracked. The one that caused all the swelling looks a mess. Just as they were leaving the office, Simon was given an shot of pain-killers to help him rest through the night. Jim said it was sort of funny. He got Simon into the truck and he was all happy to be with his Dad, then the medicine kicked in and he just went all dopey and looked really stoned.

By the time I got home, he was pretty much passed out. Poor little guy! There was no bleeding and his face didn't seem to be swollen much at all. (The pinky colour on his thigh is from him licking. It's one of the areas that tends to get really itchy for him. Once we progress into summer, it's not as bad and by winter, it's usually gone)

He was looking much better now, even if he wasn't really feeling it at this point. He's high as a kite.

The next day he was still groggy and slept a lot. He did go out for his walk in the afternoon and seemed to be coming a long pretty well. Later in the evening, I put down a bowl of watered down kibble mixed with some canned food and he ate the whole bowl! Yay! He progressed like a model patient and look at him now

He's healed up in fine fashion. So, he had pre-op blood work done, anesthetic administered, 2 extractions (but they only charged us for 1), a dental cleaning, his heartworm blood work done, we took home his heartworm meds, they didn't charge us for the pain shot and they also threw in free mani-pedi. The total bill?

Can't quite see that? Here's a closer look -

Whoa! That's some bill, eh? But you know what?

He is worth every freakin' penny!


10 comments:

BuzzleBee said...

Oh poor Simon!!! My parents dog just went through the exact same thing, so I know how you feel. I'm glad Simon is doing better though. Dr Woolard is also Bean's vet, such a small world ha ha!!!! Hope everything is good otherwise, and we're thinking about Simon!!!

Crystal said...

Wow, he sure was swollen!! I'm so glad it all got taken care of and hopefully he continues on the road to recovery.

aTxVegn said...

Oh, Carrie, how dreadful for you and Simon. He looks much much better now and you look relieved.

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

Simon was so swollen! Poor baby, and you had it rough as well. Simon's such a lucky & loved dog. Glad this had a happy ending - love the huggy pic at the end. :)

MeloMeals said...

I'm so glad he's OK now! You must have been really scared. I would sell my car to save my dog!

urban vegan said...

Poor little Simon! I am so glad he's all better. You and Jim are such good doggie parents for taking such super care of him.

Yikes. The bill is high, but I hear you; he is worth every cent, little cutie. And he got a nice buzz from the drugs, right? Please give him a belly rub for me.

PS: I've had an abscessed tooth and it hurt; I just don't believe it doesn't hurt dogs the way it would hurt people. How on earth do vets know this? Do dogs tell them so? So they have fewer nerve endings in their mouths than humans?

Ellen said...

Poor Simon sure was swollen..I felt bad for him but happy he is back to his perky self! Give him a hug for me.
Ellen

Veggie said...

Aww...He sure is!! I know what you were going through, my cat ate a bit of the Easter lilies at my parents house over the holiday and I had to rush him to the vet and pay extra for an emergency call on the Good Friday. Thankfully he didn't eat that much and we got him over there right away!

Randi said...

Poor Simon but Yay for you for taking such good care of him. We just had a 138.00 bill because our boys had stress colitis because we boarded them for 2 days( and they could feel our pain in the days leading up to their being boarded, My BIL passed away suddenly and it was a whirlwind week of planning funerals, etc).

Last year we spent 850.00 for Harley to have surgery on bladder stones. We feel like you do though, totally worth it.

Anonymous said...

We have a Boston who needs an extraction soon too. As for Simon's itchy and licking around his thigh and hind quarters .... check out petallergies.com. We have another Boston who gets red spots and irritation on his belly during the summer. We think from grass. We got a natural remedy from petallergies.com that is herbs and spices. We give him 4 coated capsules a day, and in 2 days, the spots were gone! And they didn't come back all summer as long as we gave him the 4 capsules a day. It actually might have been 8 a day (2 times 4 caps) but it was worth it. No aggravation, no itching, no licking! Lots of testimonials about the product and how it really helped peoples' dogs be stressfree. Check it out! Simon doesn't have to go through the itchy season with licking and pink sores on his thighs!