A Trip to the Animal Hospital

Rabbits and squirrels aren't the only bad guys taking up residence in my big backyard.  Nope, in fact the worst pests of all are the foxtails. Rabbits and squirrels are definitely annoying and have caused a lot of damage to my garden but the foxtails have injured my poor sweet little dogs on more than one occasion. Tuesday morning when my husband let the dogs out before work, they were just fine. By the time my daughter fed them about two hours later, Lola had snorted a foxtail up her nose and it was making her very ill. My little darling was sneezing violently and was acting completely lethargic. I knew I had no choice but to take her to the vet. I also knew it was going to be expensive. This wasn't the first time Lola had sniffed up a foxtail, so I already knew she would have to be anesthetized in order to have it removed. Lola's big sister Gladys had a foxtail in her ear once. Those are much easier and cheaper to yank out. So off to the Vet we went. When they gave me the estimate, it was just as expensive as I had expected. I realize that it is not standard practice to bargain for medical services, but I had to ask if this was the only way to get out the offending foxtail. Of course I was willing to do what it took to relieve my pet's suffering, I just wanted to know if there were any options. Lo and behold, there were options. Lola was 'intact', meaning she had not been spayed. If we chose to get her spayed, it would be much less, almost half the cost, and they would look up her nose for free. Sounds good to me! The next day after her surgery, Lola was back to her bright and bubbly self again and everyone except Gladys was very glad to have her back home.

So, that's the story of how Lola went to the vet have a foxtail taken out of her nose and ended up getting her uterus removed.