Ollie goes to the vet 1


Yesterday I was working on shaving Ollie. He had some things around his butthole that I thought were hemorrhoids. He’s had them for a long while, and they’ve never given him any trouble.

As I shaved his butthole (yes, you have to shave poodle buttholes), I accidentally nicked one of these things and it started bleeding. It was still bleeding a tiny bit hours later, and this morning too.

I looked up dog hemorrhoids on the web, and promptly scared myself silly that he had anal cancer and was going to die. So this morning I called the vet as soon as they opened, but they didn’t have any openings. They offered to fit him in between appointments, but said we probably should go to the emergency vet.

We just didn’t have funds for the emergency vet, so we brought him in at 8AM and left him there. This afternoon the vet called us and it turns out they are not hemorrhoids or anal cancer or anything, they are benign cysts (he has had several benign cysts in the past and does fine with them). They said the wound looked good– all that was needed was neosporin after each pooping.

Now to the good part. We had a credit at the vet, so when it got time to pay, we didn’t have to give them a dime!

We are really tight on money right now– we got a reduction in food stamps, $100 less than usual per month, and we’ve had some big unexpected expenses come up.

I am so glad we had that money at the vet. It really made the decision of taking him to the vet or not so much easier.

So, if you don’t have pet insurance for your dog, take the opportunity this month to pay a little ahead to your vet– just in case you have an emergency, too!

(Brad’s alternative is to regularly save an amount each month that’s dedicated to vet expenses—enough for emergencies. Of course, this assumes you’re allowed to save a significant amount, which you can’t really do when you’re on some forms of assistance like SSI and SNAP/food stamps.)


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  • Deborah Rubin

    Know what you mean about the money. I’m on SSI & SNAP too. I’ve been with my vet a long time and he’ll let me do payments, but for Eowyn’s major illness that started last year I had to dip into some of the money that’s supposed to last my whole life. And I may have to again as there are some expensive re-checks and tests coming due. Not to mention the expensive anti-seizure meds she’ll be on the rest of her life, as well as the other meds and special food. But by the time I found out about pet insurance, she already had pre-existing conditions. *sigh* Such is life. She is my life.