First Mia, then Kess

From the desk of Kess' mama:

In the last 2 months, both our beagles have undergone surgery. Mia went first as we had decided to get her spayed after we took her to the vet for a check-up. We are aware of the benefits of spaying a female dog - reduction of risk of breast, ovarian and uterine cancer, as well as reduction of risk of unwanted pregnancy. Kess was also spayed, so it made sense to spay Mia too.

Mia was rather disoriented post-surgery, which is normal.

 

She did not like her buster collar, which was normal too as it got in the way of walking, sniffing, eating and playing. Plus she kept bumping into Kess each time she tried to play with her big sis, which Kess did not like...Thankfully, it did not stop her from enjoying a lie in the sun.

After a week, Mia was recovering beautifully and we we were able to remove her buster collar, which was a great relief to Mia (and us) and life was back to normal again for our happy-go-lucky beagle pup.

 

Next, it was Kess' turn. As Kess grew older, she started having lumps. A few years back, she had a wart-like lump on her left hip. We had it checked out by Kess' vet in Malaysia and at that time, it was not deemed to be a concern. It did however grow larger over the years. Earlier this year, we noticed two lumps, one near her left eye and one on the top of her head. Again, we got it checked out by Kess' vet in Hong Kong and at that time it was still quite small and not deemed to be a risk. However, the lump on her head got aggravated as Kess and Mia had their doggie sumo wrestling, as I like to call it. Mia would usually initiate their play/fight/wrestle and both dogs would head-butt, nip and chase each other around.

This sometimes result in bleeding, and then it would scab as the wound healed but it would occur again when they played next. Since the lump had increased in size, we consulted the vet again and decided to go for surgery to remove all 3 lumps. It was a tough decision due to Kess' age, and let's face it, nobody likes putting their dog through surgery. But it was the right thing to do.

I have to admit I was shocked when I picked up Kess post-surgery yesterday. Unlike Mia's spaying procedure which is on the belly, Kess' stitches were very visible as they were on her head, face and hip area. The cuts and stiches were also longer than I had anticipated, which looked worse because her fur was shaved around those areas. She looked like a patch up doll - my poor Kess. The upside was that she was full of energy, grabbing onto her leash, eager to go home. In the car, she knocked out and pretty much slept the entire journey home. Once home, she was hungry and wanted her dinner - she had to fast before the surgery and missed out on her breakfast. We were only supposed to feed her half her normal meal at 8pm but she was so hungry that we relented and gave her meal at 6 pm. She was still hungry after her half portion, that we gave her the other half since she did not seem to have any problem with keeping her food down. Anyway, the fact that she had her appetite was a good sign.

 This morning, Kess woke up early - because she was hungry! Typical beagle. She seems to be back to normal and is able to go for walks. We try to keep Mia from disturbing Kess too much. Mia misses her play mate! Kess' stitches looks less red today. Similar to Mia, we take pictures of Kess' stitches each day so that we can compare the recovery progress daily. Kess' lumps have been sent to be tested for cancer and we will know the results in about 4 weeks time. We pray that all will be well with our dear old beagle.