Dog Ramblings

I posted an entry about Piper having blood in her urine a few weeks ago.
She was diagnosed with a bladder infection and was on antibiotics for two weeks.
After two weeks, I still noticed blood in her urine so I took her back to the vet.
This time they wanted to do an ultrasound and x-rays.
They found a huge bladder stone and another little surprise; an ovarian tumor.
The tumor is small but the stone is about the size of a quarter in diameter.
She's 7lbs! How did they miss THAT in the initial exam? Even the doctor is perplexed. They're also surprised that she's not in tremendous pain. I've been saying from the beginning that she doesn't act like a dog with an infection. She's been playing and eating normally the entire time.

So, Piper has to have surgery on Monday to remove the stone and a hysterectomy to remove EVERYTHING.
Then the stone and tumor will have to be sent off to be analyzed.
This is a traumatic situation for even the most well-adjusted dog but Piper is not even close to being well-adjusted.
Just the few hours at the vet for the ultra-sound had her so upset that she bit one of the techs when he/she tried to take her out of the crate.
I warned them that she'd do it so it's not like they were surprised.
Piper is uber scared of pretty much everything. She loves and trusts me but even if I yell too loud, she's under the bed for an hour!

So, here I am with another sick dog. This time, she should make a full recovery and be fine.
It's so hard loving a pet so much and feeling like they are your furry children, yet knowing that you'll probably outlive them.

Plus, owning a dog is expensive! This whole situation is going to end up costing me about $700!
I knew that going into dog ownership, however. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't think about that.
They get a dog thinking it'll be easy, only providing food and water.
Dogs get sick, dogs get diseases and ailments. Medical care costs money...a LOT of money.
My niece, whose life is a COMPLETE mess, has a 3 yr old son and wants to get a dog.
She can't even afford to pay her rent, how is she going to afford a dog?

The vet told me a really bad story too. She had a man bring a 6 month old puppy in with some kind of ailment and the puppy needed surgery and a blood transfusion.
The man opted for euthanasia because he just bought a new car and couldn't afford the procedures.
The vet pleaded with him to change his mind and she even made him a deal. She said if they did the procedures and the dog died anyway, they'd only charge him the office visit. If the dog lived, then he'd have to pay for it.
He still said no, so the clinic took ownership of the dog, performed the procedures and now he's perfectly healthy and looking for a new home.

My first response was, "What breed?"
Unfortunately, he's a large breed. If he would have fit into my apartment, I'd have a new puppy!