I took Xena to the vet Thursday for what I thought was going to be minor surgery to remove a golf-ball size tumor from her ear. Not quite. Apparently, the tumor was solidly connected to the ear , not hanging by a thread, as I’d thought.
When I went to pick her up, she was pretty doped up and wearing a large cone made of hard plastic.
“She’ll get used to it,” the vet tech said as he helped me load her into the truck. “My lab learned to use his as a weapon.”
Poor Xena cried through the night Thursday, keeping me up and prompting me to lie on the floor next to her for a while to comfort her. She must have been in a good bit of pain. And she’s a schemer. Apparently, Lara did the same thing a few times during the night, too.
It’s now been a few days of life with the cone. The pain appears to be gone but not the indignation at having to wear a giant white hood. But as the vet tech predicted, she’s learned to use the cone as a battering ram, sweeping aside me and the other dogs as she barges through the house. So far, though, it’s doing a great job of keeping her away from the wound, which is healing nicely. We’ll find out whether the tumor was benign or malignant this week …
2 replies on “Xena the cone head …”
poor xena… the indignity of it all!!! i’m impressed by her manipulation of her humans tho. 🙂 when we had gypsy spayed she wore a cone too. unfortunately, she figured out how to get her teeth into the seam and pretty much eat the thing right off of her head. after several replacements, we realized the need to make the edge inaccessible with duct tape. it didn’t stop the problem but did slow her down a good bit.
Awww, Poor Xena! Not sure which is more painful, the surgery or the cone!