Angel's Surgery

We brought Angel in for a check up on the open sore under her eye that just won't heal. I guess I should give a little background first before I go into the specifics.

Last year before our move to CA I took Angel in for her first tooth cleaning. Everything went very well, well except on my nerves that is. Anesthesia makes me nervous and there is just as much of a risk to dogs as there are to humans. Anyway, after leaving her with my parents and siblings in KS for a month while we house hunted, we picked her up to find a lump under her eye.

When we arrive back in CA we take her to the vet. The recommendation was either do an x-ray and give her anesthesia or try antibiotic. The vet thought that she might have an infection in her tooth and the infection was showing up in a lump under her eye.

We try the antibiotic and that seems to reduce the size of the lump. The lump came back and we took her to the vet again. A different antibiotic and the lump practically disappeared. We thought that we had beat the infection and that the tooth didn't need to be pulled.

The lump came back and Angel broke the skin open which caused the infection to drain out but not fix the problem. The open wound would scab over but not heal 100%. Which brings us to yesterday.

The vet wanted to do an x-ray, tooth cleaning and then the extraction based off the x-ray. They were able to do this all yesterday right after the appointment. I felt horrible. I was upset, felt guilty and just plain mad. I don't know if the cleaning she had last year caused the infection with the tooth or not but it just seemed to coincidental.

She was funny to watch yesterday after surgery. Couldn't really walk quite in a straight line. Wasn't comfortable and was drooling a little bit.

We were up for a little while very early this morning after she threw up on Nathan.

I will keep you posted on how she does. She does have a follow up appointment next week. Antibiotic for the next 10 days, soft food for the next 7 days, pain meds for up to 7 days and then we can go back to brushing her teeth in 7 days.

If you need to know I was upset at myself because I should have just done the x-ray and possible tooth extraction that first vet visit. I feel guilty because I let the problem continue for a year. And I was mad because at just 8 years old she had to have her first tooth removed.