A Visit to the Vet

In early December, Little Bear had swelling on one side of his face. It didn’t seem to bother him and went away in a couple of days. The swelling appeared again just before Christmas. I booked an appointment for him but by the day of the appointment, the swelling had gone down substantially again so I cancelled the appointment.

The swelling came back last week so I scheduled another appointment for Little Bear. Once again, the swelling has gone down substantially but there is still a large enough bump that we took him to the appointment; it was this afternoon at 3:20.

Little Bear has the nicest doctor; I’m sure he’s the best vet in the city! :-) I was shy to ask if I could take a few pictures while he examined Little Bear but I really wanted this to be my picture of the day, so I dared to ask in spite of being shy about it - and he said it was fine!

It turns out Little Bear has an absessed tooth, when the swelling goes down it means the pus is draining and he’s swallowing it (ick). The tooth needs to be pulled; he has to be put to sleep for the extraction. We scheduled the appointment for next Monday (the soonest available date). While Little Bear is “out” they can also clean his teeth – at an additional cost. But Little Bear’s doctor said the cleaning wouldn’t necessarily guarantee that he would be free of future dental problems.

Our estimate for the surgery…$603.07 - $748.21 "range in costs pending the length of the anesthetic and difficulty of each extraction". That estimate is for the extration alone (and that’s after paying for the blood work as part of his appointment today); $880.12 - $1050.72 for the extraction plus cleaning. Ouch!

But, what do you do? We love Little Bear and want to take proper care of him so that he can be as healthy as possible, but I’m so nervous about him having to go for surgery. I’ll be glad when it’s over and he’s back home and I hope he recovers fully and quickly!