1x Dog, 1x Grass seed, 5x Vets Appointments & £750 bill!

[monoloco]

We’ve got an incredibly fit, energetic and healthy 2 year old German Shorthaired Pointer. Last Sunday we noticed a soft marble-sized lump in his jowl –just below his jaw bone. Didn’t seem to be bothering him so we initially thought it was some form of cyst. By Monday it was the size of a golf-ball so off to the vets who said it needed an op to remove it. The op’ was next morning and goes fine -turns out to be a grass seed that had probably worked its way down through a pocket in his gum and gone septic. Vet said she’d seen several similar problems this year with grass seeds embedded in paws, ears, eyes and even a lung.

So far so good. Pooch is a bit dopey from the anaesthetic but otherwise fine so we take him home, armed with a pack of Metacam NSAID/painkillers to take the swelling down. And that’s where the trouble started……next day he’s got a bad stomach so back to the vets who give him some anti-acid tablets to settle his tum and an injection of metacam instead of the tablet version and with instructions to restart the tablets next morning. But, by the next morning he’s in a right old state -literally stting and vomiting blood, shaking from head to tail, not eating or drinking, totally lethargic and barely able to stand. Another trip to the vets who diagnose acute allergic reaction to metacam. So more injections of different pain killers, doggy-diarolyte, anti-biotics and pro-biotic gunk.

I’m pleased to report that once off the metacam he actually made a pretty quick recovery and by Saturday (and another vet check) he was well on the mend –just rather skinny after best part of five days of not eating! That just leaves the wife who is completely traumatised after convincing herself that she was losing her boy and me swallowing a £750 vets bill ( hopefully the PetPlan will cover most of it!)
The reaction to metacam was dramatic –really scary. And the weird but is he had metacam once before when he had his nuts chopped off –at that point he had a slight upset tum but was generally OK. This time around it hit really hard and we’ve subsequently heard of numerous other dogs that react badly to it –so why is it cleared for canine use?