The Seven Hundred Dollar Piece of Paper

So, over the weekend, Leah had a bout of burping....and suddenly she started feeling a bit better. She stopped making the strange retching noise, she stopped waking me up at night, she stopped drooling, and the groaning decreased somewhat (although not entirely).

Upon speaking with her vet last night, we have both agreed that (1) It probably was Leah's stomach bothering her, and not her arthritis, so she does not need to continue taking Deramaxx. (2) The granules in her belly might very well be sand, (thanks to the feral cat colony next door), which she should pass on her own (3) Her distended stomach was most likely caused by gas (4) She appears to be on the mend (5) We can hold off on further testing

If the groaning isn't entirely gone in two weeks, then she'll do another x-ray to see if anything has changed - but for now, it appears my sweet senior should be just fine...and we spent $700.00 on gas.

Consequently, the vet gave me the Spay Certificate I requested - so I guess not all the money was wasted. At nearly twelve years old, Leah is officially spayed. Not only will we save some money on licensing fees, we may even get to compete in a Rally trial or three down the road...