On Friday Maidy had a number of mammary tumours (lumps) removed, and she was spayed at the same time. I drove her all the way to Mahone Bay (Oakland Veterinary Clinic - strong positive recommendations coming from my way). When we first arrived at the clinic, at around 8:30am, Maidy was quite excited, wagging her tail and sniffing at all of the yummy bags of food with huge sniffs. I was then told that I could leave her there and pick her up in a few hours.
At 3pm, I picked Maidy up again. To be quite honest, it was slighty heartbreaking to see her in the condition in which she was in. I think the toughest thing was that she just "wouldn't wake up" from the anaesthetics she had been given for the procedure. She was given quite a bit more, as the procedure took quite a bit longer than expected. Although we got Maidy to wake up just a little bit, she did not like having her wounds touched in any way, so when we tried to pick her up, she yelped (another sad thing to see/hear). What we had to do, was to lift her up using the blanket she was laying on, and carry her into the back of the car with it. It went quite well.
The drive home was tough as well, as Maidy occasionally whimpered. She must have been so uncomfortable and very scared. Thankfully, she did seem to be knocked out for part of the drive (probably still from the meds), so hopefully she did not feel too much during that portion of the drive. When we got home, Malcolm and I had to once again carry her into the house using the blanket, and again there was no problem with this.
Maidy has been camping out in the livingroom for the past few days. We laid down a number of doggy blankets for her so that she could have the entire floor. The first 24 hours were the worst. She whimpered every once in a while for the entirety of the evening, didn't eat or drink anything, and her wounds still were very fresh (and therefore had fresh blood every once in a while too). At 11pm, she vomited, what could only have been bile. Again, so sad to see. For the rest of the time after that, she seemed to sleep for the majority of the night, and had gotten quite a bit better in the morning.
Since then, she has slowly built up her strength again, has started wagging her tail, eating, and drinking, and has even started going out for a few short walks. For two nights in a row, Malcolm and I camped out in the livingroom with her - one on each couch. We spent both nights waking up every few hours (or was it minutes?) to stop her from licking her wouns.
Today Maidy is doing a lot better. She seems to be in high spirits, and is much more active than she has been over the past few days. I'm very happy that everything has gone well, as I was somewhat doubtful about her recovery that first day/night. She is 12 years old after all - that's something like 84 doggy years! I couldn't imagine going through a procedure like that at 84. Maidy is one brave brown bear! What a sweetheart!