Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Trip to the Vet

Last night Joe noticed a small red bump on Ava's eyelid. I started over analyzing it (surprise, surprise, I know) and did some heavy googling on red bumbs on dogs. I saw a lot of gross things and some cancer-related things, which definitely didn't help my anxiety. But then I saw some very similar bumbs that were diagnosed as stys, and they were no big deal. Joe then managed to talk me down off the ledge and I agreed to wait and see what it looked like in the morning.

This morning her eye was completely swollen and the bump was bigger, with a red dot in the middle, which looked like exposed skin. That was that - she was going to the vet! Now, my problem was that my vet was an hour away in the area where I worked, and I technically wasn't supposed to bring Ava to work with me anymore because she wasn't vaccinated for kennel cough.

I tried finding a vet close to where we live, but they opened at 9:00 a.m., the time I needed to be at work. My two choices - take Ava to the vet we had already been to, and bring her to work with me for the day, OR wait for two hours until the new vet opened, hope there was an early appointment available, and hope that the exam didn't take too long. Well, I know the exam would take forever because Ava has serious issues and vets need to know EVERYTHING before they diagnose anything (at least, good vets should). So, I decided on option A. I emailed my team and told them the situation then headed to work.

I took her to the vet at 10:00 and wouldn't you know it - the swelling had disappeared. Seriously, it was like that one time we went to the ER for a swollen eye only to have the vet ask us which eye was supposed to be swollen. Embarrassing. But the bump was still there, so she definitely still needed to be seen.

I swear, it looks a lot worse in person than in this picture. The bump is on the top right corner of her eye.


The vet was very sweet and even though Ava was so unhappy, I felt really good about the visit. The vet gave us ointment to be put on and in her eye twice a day and said it should clear up soon. Fingers and paws crossed!

She spent the rest of the day lounging on my desk at work, happy to be back with her mom.



5 comments:

  1. Oh no! Poor Ava! I hate when things magically get better by the time you reach the doctor (or mechanic). It would be much more helpful for that to happen BEFORE you called in the first place!

    ReplyDelete
  2. She is just sooo cute! And, she went through all that just to spend time with you at work :-) I used to rush to the vet all the time until too many times happened just like you described. I know Ava has major health issues so I can understand why you might be overly concerned with her. But also I can tell you that one of my Bichons, I've lost her about 7 years ago, got a LOT of weird looking bumps on her as she got older. They were nothing. Oddly enough, her brother was another Bichon and he never got what she got. Anway, glad all is well!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was glad to get to see her anyway :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Brandi That tends to happen to me because I tend to be a little overdramatic with things. But my rule is better safe than sorry!

    @Kim Yes, I worry more about Ava because her immune system is so fragile. But luckily it turned out okay. And you are right - maybe she faked it just to spend the day with me!

    @Shauna Thanks! She's looking much better!

    @Ellie Seriously, Stacy, she is so funny when she sees you. Literally the ONLY time she hopped out of bed all day was when you came back to the desk. :)

    ReplyDelete