I wanted to share a little “scare” our family had right before Halloween with our little dog, Maya. Every year I have both Popo and Maya, our little 6 pound Chihuahuas, dentals done. This requires anesthesia in Pets because cleaning under the gums would be painful and potentially dangerous to the dog without it (if they struggle with sharp instruments in their mouth). Even though I am a vet, I have always been of the opinion that like pediatricians, it is not wise to treat your own “children” and have them blame you. So I brought them to my colleague, Dr. Erin Kilpatrick. To make sure every Pet is healthy enough to undergo any procedure requiring anesthesia, Banfield always runs pre-anesthetic blood-work. This time the blood-work showed that even though Maya has been acting fine, she had elevated liver enzymes. Being a “worried mom”, I of course approved further testing, even though the elevations were not very much higher than normal. Maya’s liver function test came back abnormal, so Dr. Kilpatrick performed digital radiography (xrays) and an ultrasound of her liver and abdomen and referred those to a board certified radiologist.
To make a long story short, Maya has a disease of the gall bladder called “cholecystitis”. She is now on medication and her energy level has actually increased–she has even found her favorite squeak toy, “curly pig”, and brought him out to play with again.
It is so great that with regular veterinary care, annual blood work and dentistry that we can sometimes catch serious diseases before our family members even get sick!! To me, this just enforces my strong belief in “keeping Pets healthy” and catching disease very early in it’s course. I’m crossing my fingers that the follow up ultrasound looks as good as Maya seems to feel. I’m sure Maya would say “thank you” if she could, but I’ll say it for her, Thank you!