As abysmal as Hoochie is, and he is VERY abysmal, he does not deserve the day he is about to have. He got a bath this morning which is fun for him because we have a hand-held massaging shower head and he loves how it feels! I massage his shampoo in, then massage him with the water… he loves it. And he loves to roly-poly around on the carpet to dry, so usually I don’t let him near carpeting after baths so that he doesn’t leave that wet dog stench in my carpet. But today is an exception, so I took him upstairs to roly-poly in the babies’ room because the babies love to watch him rumple himself and he loves to do it, so everybody wins.
Then I took him to the vet. He is having several lumps removed surgically. They will put him under and it will probably cost us just as much money as buying a new Hoochie would cost. But we love this one! He’s 10 years old, so our little old man needs extra bloodwork for his age and we’re going to have them clean his teeth and trim his nails while he is under so that we’re getting our full returns on the same amount of anesthesia! We worried that he has cancer because he is growing lumps everywhere, but apparently they are benign. Thank goodness! So instead of removing 5 lumps, our ethical vet called to say she’d like to only charge us for 2 lump removals because the rest aren’t hurting him.
He will spend today hooked up to an IV machine and then in surgery and then in recovery. Last time, when they removed a baseball sized tumor from his tummy and cleaned his teeth, he was so groggy and sore and he couldn’t even walk… I had to help him stand up so he could pee! Poor little guy. It’s going to be a full evening of cuddling him when he comes home later this afternoon. It’s so crazy because a year ago next week, I was hooked up to an IV machine and then in surgery and then in recovery and I couldn’t stand up either! I feel your pain, Hoochie!
We feel sorry for him, but he has been so abysmal lately. Matt is concerned that he’s going to eat something stupid and kill himself by accident and then it will have all been a waste. But if Hoochie can survive his own stupidity by some miraculous means, we want him around because we love him very much.
How’s Hoochie? Probably not thrilled. (By the way, you should totally get pet insurance. With a dog it almost always pays for itself.)
Let me give you all an update! Hoochie had two internal fat tumors that were removed, as well as two external skin/fat growths. He also had two tumors in his mouth so they removed those as well when they cleaned his teeth. All lumps were benign. About 1/4 to 1/3 of him is shaved… he has splotches of no hair everywhere with an angry line of stitches across each one. He’s just a little guy and 4 surgical sites covers alot of him (plus the ones in his mouth)! He is resting and on pain meds and he acts like his normal I’m-not-10-years-old,-I’m-a-puppy self, despite the pain. We’re taking good care of him. He usually refuses meds, so we have to shove them in a chunk of banana or into the middle of a cheerio. This morning, he ate the cheerio around the pill, then spit out the tiny little pill. So I resorted to helping him swallow a cheerio whole with the pill in the middle, because if he can taste it, that thing is NOT going down!
Regarding pet insurance, I’ll tell you what I know. It is predominantly a crock. Any pre-existing condition doesn’t count, and pre-existing is defined by likelihood of that dog getting that condition. If it is likely that they will, it isn’t covered. The breed of schnauzers is notorious for small, benign lumps and growths so no insurance company would give us coverage toward that condition since Hooch is a mini schnauzer. Basically, pet insurance is good for if your dog needs medical coverage because he was hit by a car or if some terrible disease like cancer or heart failure or something takes place IF the breed isn’t usually affected by that particular disease. And by the time your dog is old enough for this stuff to happen, quality of life questions set in and it may be kinder to put them down anyway. It’s a difficult area.
Yeah. It can be tricky. I think pet insurance is also a bit more fair about things like breeds and pre-existing conditions over here in the UK. Over in the US, pet insurance is probably just as evil and malicious as health insurance.