It's NOT Cancer!!!

As you can imagine, I am thrilled to be writing this post. I have to admit, at the mention of a possible tumor, I didn't have much hope for my poor girl, Leah. I spent the greater part of last night reading about cancers in dogs, and that squelched any remaining hope I had left.

But that's all in the past now, as it looks like my Leah is going to be absolutely fine.

The ultrasound revealed no signs of tumors, cancer, bloat, or stomach wall thickening. The only thing they discovered was a distended stomach - with some unidentified granules inside of it. The vet I spoke with this morning was not at all concerned, and asked me to try giving Leah Deramaxx, in case her groaning is merely due to her arthritis acting up. (This is not our regular vet; since I took Leah in for an emergency visit I ended up with the first available.)

I honestly do not feel the problem is her arthritis, because Leah groans when lying down, or while trying to find a comfortable position, not when getting up after laying still - which I think would be a better indicator of that sort of issue. Besides, when she does get up, she jumps to her feet and takes off with the ease of a gazelle that noticed a lion slinking through the grass...

So, I questioned her about the granules, and while I was at it, I mentioned that not only was she still groaning, but I noticed her drooling a small puddle on her mat the previous evening, which was (obviously) weird. When I said that, the vet replied that this was more of an indicator that her stomach is bothering her, and maybe she is not digesting her food properly. But she still wanted me to try the Deramaxx first, just for the weekend - she's stuck on that arthritis thing. 

She then she said if that doesn't help, they can do a dye test, where they sedate Leah, inject her with dye, and then do further x-rays to see how the food passes through her stomach.

Since I'm no vet, I agreed to the Deramaxx trial - after all, Leah's taken it before without issue, and it's only for a weekend. But when I call the vet back on Monday to tell her that Leah's still groaning, I'm going to also ask what she would do for Leah in the event that she isn't digesting food properly. I'm thinking that if they just give her antacids, or suggest a diet change, maybe we can try that first, rather than putting her through more testing?

Finally, Nick and I were discussing the granules when it dawned on me that Leah is always eating the cat crap that the feral colony that lives next door continuously deposits on our property. No matter how much we supervise Leah, she - and Meadow - seek it out as if it were crack. And it's always buried in the sand. Hmmmm.....maybe those are the granules? So, that's something else I'll mention when I call back on Monday, that, and the fact that Leah is now belching.

Anyway, no matter what's wrong, it's not cancer, and it sure doesn't seem to be anything life threatening. Additionally, my senior girl just got a complete health check up...her heart and lungs and spine are great. Her blood results were awesome. And she just got a full abdominal ultrasound, and other than this weird stomach thing - everything looked great. How perfect is that news? Especially for a hypochondriac like me.

Time to make a list of questions for the vet...

Along with all the health concerns that I've come up with, I forgot to ask if they could tell if Leah was spayed, so I'm adding that to my list. Don't worry, I am a big believer in spay/neuter - but when we adopted Leah, they could not find a spay scar. They told me the only way to know for sure was either to open her up and check, or to give her an ultrasound. Given those options, I said, "Let's just see if she goes into heat, and if she does, then we'll get her fixed."

She never did...

Then why, after eight years of no heats, do I care what the ultrasound showed? Well, I've taken Leah to a few Rally classes lately, and had hoped to possibly compete one day, but the AKC doesn't welcome mixed breeds who aren't fixed. Additionally, NY State just raised their licensing fee to $25.00 for unspayed dogs, so if I can obtain a spay certificate from my vet - I'll save some money, and maybe Leah and I can earn some titles together down the road.

After all, her tests turned out so well that hopefully my sweet senior will be around for a long, long time to come...