May 17, 2003
11:30 p.m.
I can't sleep. I've spent the past hour-and-a-half watching my dog sleep, poking at her abdomen, phoning the emergency vet, phoning my mother and googling the Internet for "spay+lump."
This evening, I noticed something new on Dusty's abdomen. There are two solid lumps underneath her spay incision. I noticed them when she started licking her incision (it could be my imagination, but I think she's more pre-occupied than normal with her belly).
After she went to sleep, I started probing her belly (Dusty will sleep through this under normal circumstances). When I got to the lumps, she flinched when I poked at them. Otherwise, she doesn't seem like she's in any pain. Her 'input/output' is normal and her activity is level was off the charts yesterday.
The emergency vet didn't think it was an emergency, as long as she's eating and pooping normally. My mother seemed to recall that her dog had some bumpiness around the incision after the spay, but when I told her that the bumps were the size of a large marble and a small marble, she grew concerned.
Of course, this just had to happen on a holiday weekend. I won't be able to take Dusty to the vet until Tuesday at the earliest. I'm hesitant to take her to the emergency vet unless she's very ill because even a consultation is damned expensive.
I'm not sure what's going on, but I've done my homework on the web, and I suspect this is a post-operative hernia(s). If this is the case, I may be looking at surgery all over again, which would be a bummer.
I'm going to let Dusty take it easy, keep her off the stairs and see how it goes tomorrow.
*sigh* This is making me crazy - I hate not knowing.