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May 26, 2011

Tuesday morning we awoke to a debate between me and Tom over the size of Lilly’s spider bite lump. I said it was bigger, maybe 10%. Tom said it was the same as the night before. Possible surgery hung in the balance. Terrified to make the wrong decision, I waited and waited.

I groped her neck. I took pictures and flipped between the images for nearly an hour, trying to decide what to do.

You can catch up via Dog Spider Bite Part 1, Dog Spider Bite Part 2, Dog Spider Bite Part 3, and Dog Spider Bite Part 4 of our latest veterinary emergency saga.

Having a family member recently hospitalized with a terrible infection that went septic (into the blood stream), I was perhaps a bit twitchy about making the surgery / no surgery decision in this surprise veterinary drama.

(See what you think.)

best dog blog champion of my heart spider bite
Monday night after having the abscess drained
best dog blog Champion of My Heart spider bite
Tuesday morning

I thought it looked THICKER, not necessarily bigger in terms of surface area. Tom disagreed.

Finally, he said before leaving for the day, “Just go ahead and feed her breakfast. You stay home and work today as planned, and we’ll see how things look tomorrow at her reheck appointment. If the lump it bigger, it’s only a tiny bit bigger. She’ll be fine today.”

So I did, with the caveat that if her neck blew up again, we would make a run for the veterinary hospital after lunch.

Thankfully, even though I believe it was her day off, our veterinarian called around 10 am to check on Lilly, and I told her my 10% estimate and our decision to stay home. She upheld that decision, explaining that she was MORE worried about how Lilly was ACTING than how the lump looked. And, Lilly was eating and drinking, pottying, and even playing a bit.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said.

Spider Bite Recheck Visit

The next morning (Wednesday), we awoke to find Lilly’s lump a good 50% smaller than what it had been the day before. Even though I was confident no surgery would be needed, I withheld her breakfast just in case.

Again, before making a mad dash out the door, Tom instructed, “Even if they WANT to do surgery, don’t let them. It’s healing fine.”

I debated whether I should bring my laptop and a boatload of work along with me, just in case … Lilly did need surgery, and I needed to hunker down in town for the day.

I chose not to.

“Lilly is getting better. She won’t need surgery,” I told myself.

And, I was right.

best dog blog Champion of My Heart spider bite
Lilly looks at the door and waits in anticipation for her veterinarian to recheck her spider bite.

The real trick was finding something Lilly could wear that didn’t rub on her neck. A regular collar and even a head collar were out of the question. Yet,  I truly fear having her out in public without a collar and tags (even though she is microchipped).

Lilly’s fear-based flee response is powerful. I do not take the risk of her getting scared and running off lightly.

So, I scaled down a harness we have for Ginko, and stuck her in that.

It wasn’t ideal, but it worked fine.

The second issue was this … Would Lilly be traumatized by the veterinary visit from Monday that getting her into the hospital and into the exam room be a total beast?

Lilly and I stopped at the local library on our way to the veterinary hospital to return that sheep herding book though which I’ve been muddling. Lilly likes the library and creek area of town, so I hoped that would put her at ease.

Once we arrived at the hospital, I parked in our usual spot and let Lilly poke around the grassy area. We didn’t really have time to walk the railroad tracks, so following Lilly’s seemingly confident mood, I walked her right up to the door.

She was a champ, even though in addition to breakfast I’d also skipped her antidepressant.

Alas, as soon as we entered the lobby two terriers unleashed a cacophony of shrill, staccato barks at us. Poor Lilly went flat.

“That was a great picture of you two in the newspaper,” one of the veterinary technicians said. “I brought it in to show everyone and said, ‘These are our clients!'”

So, I told her the story behind that as well as an update on our goal of getting a book deal.

We weighed Lilly and made our way into the exam room, where we talked about my Lilly escape fears and the harness solution.

I took a couple pictures (including the one above) so show my brave, beautiful girl coping so well, despite everything.

When our veterinarian came in to feel, Lilly’s neck. She agreed that no surgery was necessary. She had me feel the hard central core to the lump and explained that will go away over time. She cautioned me to watch for any new squishy feeling spots and for signs of infection, including fever.

With Lilly’s temp back to normal (after being high on Monday), she sent us on our way with, “I want to see you again on Monday.”

As luck would have it, Ginko’s wellness exam was already scheduled for Monday. I try VERY HARD not to have both dogs at the vet at the same time to protect my sanity, but we made it work. We drove the 4Runner, not my Mini, and Tom came with me to help wrangle the pups.

Our plan? Bring only one at a time inside.

***

That update tomorrow.

About the Author Roxanne Hawn

Trained as a traditional journalist and based in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA, I'm a full-time freelance writer for magazines, websites, and private clients. My areas of specialty include everything in the lifestyles arena, including health and home, personal finance and other consumer interests, relationships and trends, people and business profiles ... and, of course, all things pet related.

I don't just love dogs. I need them in my life. Seriously.

  1. My goodness, this has gone on much longer than any of us thought that it would. I am so happy that it seems to finally be improving. No surgery is a very good thing!!!!

    I’m also glad to hear that Lilly is handling her visits to the vet so well. It sounds to me like you’ve found a really good vet.

    We’re having our own little veterinary drama with a ripped toenail and possible fracture in R’s toe. Not life threatening… but causing him a lot of pain nonetheless.

    We haven’t run across spiders yet but we’ve had our run-ins in the past. My eyes are peeled for them after your warnings.

    Fingers crossed that Lilly keeps on improving!

  2. I love happy endings…even if it ends with two dogs at the vet at the same time.

    Interestingly enough I try to always bring all of my dogs (for awhile that was three) to the vet for every appointment. I think it keeps them calmer because they never know if the appointment is for them or not.

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