Sam the dog to have surgery on Wednesday

[MSRobi911]

Ok, I know there are a lot of pet lovers out there, so our Dachshund, Sam is having surgery on his ears on Wednesday. He has had ear infections for the last several months and they were so bad 2 weeks ago that it had actually eaten a hole in both his ear drums. We have been putting drops in every night and giving him 3 pills a day and when he went back Saturday he still has both ears infected and some "polyps" so he has to have the polyps cut out and they are going to wash out his ears again and look behind his ear drums to see if something back there is causing the infections.

Please keep Sam in your prayers, he's a family pet and loved very much, even though he can be a pain in the butt.....he is still not used to Post-Katrina and his house being gone and his yard being destroyed and no grass, etc. etc....he still thinks he is lost...poor dog, how do you explain that to a dog. Oh, and he does not like trailer life, especially with thunder storms and just the rain hitting the tin roof scars him to death. He has eaten through his portable carrier so now we have to go buy a metal one to put him in while we are work....its so sad for him.

Thanks,

Mary

[arkess7]

awwwwwww! prayers for a quick recovery for Sam!

[Skywatch_NC]

Prayers and thoughts from central NC for Sam's surgery to be successful and guidance for the doc(s) in finding the source of his ear infections. Also, for Sam in his gradual adjustment in the post-Katrina challenges.

Eric

[george_r_1961]

Good luck with Sam..pat him on the head for me.

[Stephanie]

Sam is in my prayers! That poor thing!

[O Town]

Awww, poor pupper snoozle. I sure hope they figure out what is behind the infections that don't seem to go away. My mom has 2 wiener dogs, they really are sweet dogs. Prayers are on their way for Sam.

[azsnowman]

Prayers comin your way........it's funny, until 8 years ago I would never think about spending a TREMENDOUS amount of money on my dog, don't get me WRONG, I have ALWAYS been a dog lover extreme but I had my limits, and too, I was raising my kids and my priorities were different back then.......but NOW, I don't care HOW much it costs for a vet visit, we also now have "Pet Insurance!" Good IDeA for you pet lovers out there


Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your thread, "Good Luck and a SPEEDY recovery to Sam!"

Dennis

[CajunMama]

Awww Mary, poor Sam. He will feel so much better though. Will he have to wear one of those cones?

[Miss Mary]

Major dog lover that I am now, thanks to our sweet Golden, I will certainly pray for Sam! The poor guy, he's been thru a lot and I can only imagine how strung out our dog would be if she were uprooted and had to hear the rain each time it stormed. Can you put him in an interior bathroom with the exhaust fan on? That's what our dog prefers. If it's the middle of the night, I just turn on the fan, a few lights, open the laundry room door and she makes a beeline for the half bath. Then we all go back to sleep. On top of being in a new home and storms, he needs surgery. No wonder you're worried Mary. Pets are like our children! I hope he does well.

Mary

[MSRobi911]

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers for Sam. I am certainly hopeing for the best. When you are a pet owner, its just like one of your kids, only they have 4 legs and can't talk back to ya, well they do somethimes

He has already had back surgery for two ruptured discs so I know about the vet bills, but $1,000.00 compared to putting him to sleep was worth every penny.

Thanks again!

Mary

[southerngale]

Awww, poor little Sam. I hope it's a quick recovery and not too hard on him. Kiss his nose for me!

[MSRobi911]

Sorry it took so long to get back and post an update. Sam did fine through his surgery. He had two polyps in each ear and a whole lot of infection behind his ear drums that the Vet cleaned out. The Vet said it would have never cleared up unless he had washed it all out and cleaned it up real good. So hopefully he is on his way to recovery. When Robi went to pick him up, he wouldn't go to him, he wouldn't even look at him, he just went to the door and stood and waited for him to come open the door to take him out. When they got home and he got inside the trailer he wouldn't look at him and wouldn't give him the time of day, he wouldn't even sit with him, which he does all the time....he was one tt'd off puppy dog at his "daddy"!!!!

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers!

Mary

[Miss Mary]

Mary! Oh my, pets are just like children, aren't they? Sam's mad he had surgery. The poor little guy. But can you blame him? We elected to have Hope's anal glands removed b/c they always bothered her, while she was in for a benign cyst on her lip once. I didn't forgive myself for that surgery (the butt one) for months. She would wince in pain, I had a schedule for her pain meds, so I wouldn't forget she had one (every 12 hours). I would suggest that, you're in the Medical field, you might have already done this. But I just kept a pad of paper out, wrote down each day with the specific date, am and pm. And checked each when I gave her a pain pill. I would have felt awful if I had skipped a dose. She couldn't eat like she normally did, leaning over her bowl, it put pressure on this area. So I fed her by hand for 2 weeks. My kids still mention this, how I babied her. I apologized for weeks/months for listening to our Vet (the butt surgery). She hasn't been the same since, with him. Used to let him give her shots, clip her nails and she'd thump that tail. Not now, she tries to get under my chair when waiting for an appt. A 75 lb. Golden trying to get under that bottom chair rung, 6 inches off the floor. She's a quivering mess by the time the Vet walks in the exam room. He keeps saying - it was the surgery that did this huh? I sigh and say yes. But she's no longer annoyed with this part of her body.

You do what you have to I guess is what I'm saying. Sam will hopefully forgive you and especially Robi.

Thanks for the update. Wondered how the little guy was doing!

Mary

[Stephanie]

It's amazing the reactions and the GUILT they load on us when they are pissed off at us.

I'm sure that this will be soon forgotten when he's feeling alot better!

[MSRobi911]

OH Mary,

Sam needs or probably will need his anal scent glands removed, they have been infected twice since October......the vet said the next time he would have to have surgery and cut those out. But he suffers when they are infected, he swells up and has trouble with his BM's and puss just runs out around his hiney......he was a character after his back surgery. He didn't fight the pain pills like he did the antibiotics, like he knew he was gonna get high or something...silly dog! Anyway the first night he couldn't hardly walk, Robi almost died the next day when he read the bottle, he was supposed to give him 1/2 a pill and he had given him 2 pills, no wonder the poor thing didn't move for hours!!!! He should have put on his glasses to read the bottle, but just saw the 2 and went from there....we called the vet and he said he would be fine....after his history of eating everything and not dieing he didn't know of anything that would really hurt him. He has eaten a tube of acrylic paint, a AA battery and a shotgun shell, all but the brass part on the end, he pooped bb's for days !!!!! The day I found him after he ate the shotgun shell I called Robi and told him what he had done and he told me to "Kick him in the A$$ and see if he goes off!"......I wanted to kick him in the you know where! Then I called the Vet and the lady came back on the phone and I heard the vet laughing in the back ground and he told me he would be fine since he had survived the paint and the battery already! Just look for BB's for a while and he was right.

Mary

[Skywatch_NC]

Sounds like you have a GOAT instead of a dog!

Eric

[Stephanie]

LOL! Eric!

I was going to say that Sam sounds like a real character!

[Miss Mary]

Your Sam does sound like a real character. Never a dull moment in your household. Here we can't have company without our Golden going ballistic on us - she thinks each person that comes thru the front door is here to visit her and no one else. She's relentless, licking their hands, wimpering, wanting in their laps (she's 70 lbs.!). We have to put her in another room, it's so extreme. BUT, that seems to be her only problem. Hope doesn't chew anything, grabs a sock, shoe or winter glove, but only to get our attention and play the game of running around the dining room table. She goes one way, you follow, she goes the other. That's really about it. She never swallows anything other than dog food/treats or people food (that she likes, she passes on raw veggies though!).

After reading your trials with Sam, I'm more appreciate of Hope!

I wil warn you, the anal gland surgery is very painful. Hope would just wince and try to lick. Then wince in pain again. Couldn't bend over her bowl. I felt so sorry for her, I fed her twice a day, for 2 weeks. It was just like letting a horse eat out of your hand, I told my family. I still put the dry food in her bowl but would scoop it up in handfuls. And she'd sit on her rear, eating out of my hand.

I regretted her having the surgery for weeks. But then in time I could see she was feeling so much better. Her problems weren't as extreme as Sam's symptoms, but she would try to relieve this area and then want to lick your hand - ewww! That smell was unlike any dog smell. Yuck. The Vet would say, each time you give her a shower you can express these glands and then wash the stuff away. Oh sure, I'm going to do THAT. Hope hates to be messed with. I'd have to have a muzzle on her before I'd ever attempt such a trick, in close quarters. So I never did that......no one in this family would touch that job!

Now I'm glad she had it. So if Sam has it, just be prepared for pain. He'll recover but the Vet told me there are lots of nerve endings in that area of the body and it's extremely painful to perform surgery on. They kept Hope overnight but she was still in tremendous pain the first few days and then for 2 weeks.

Mary