Pet Surgery

One day we’re contemplating how to pay the mortgage and the next thing you know your dog needs a $300 to $400 surgery. Life’s funny like that.

Our Lucy has had chronic ear issues since, well, the rest of her allergies kicked in at about one year old. Since then we’ve battled yeast infections associated with her scratching from being allergic to practically everything outside we would consider common here in the Pacific Northwest: grass; weeds; trees; mold & mildew; etc. But the most horrifying thing is her ears, which seem to bug her the most. It isn’t so much keeping them clean, but rather whenever she is excited or nervous or doesn’t get her way, she scratches the hell out of them and then shakes her head until she draws blood. Seriously, parts of our house look like a crime scene.

So today I’m taking her in for a surgery to take care of an aural hematoma that has gotten quite large. She’s had them before, but this one is taking up half her ear. If you are unfamiliar with an aural hematoma, consider yourself lucky. It is where a blood vessel has burst in the ear sandwiched between two layers of skin and looks like a water balloon, only it isn’t filled with water. It’s squishy and very painful to the dog and while smaller ones aren’t so much of a problem as they’ll heal on their own, larger ones pose a lot of other health risks.

Ugh.