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!