Poor Abe

Yesterday Abe had to go in for surgery. Ever since he was a puppy he has had a little bald spot on his head. We had it tested by a vet when he was a puppy and they kept saying that it was nothing. Well at that point it was smaller than a dime. It has just kept growing and getting bigger. When I took him to the vet in December, the vet told us it was just a bacteria that was deep in his skin. They took a sample and found that it wasn't cancerous, so we didn't worry as much. So he gave us antibiotics and it was supposed to stop it from growing anymore. It didn't!!! I asked the vet how much it would cost to take it off and he quoted me $1,000. No way was I paying that amount.

This was last summer and it was so little!

About a month ago, it started to get really dry and bleed. So we took him up to a vet in Layton that was friends with Will's mom. He knew what it was right away! It was a cyst and it would just continue to grow and take over his head. By this point it was about the size of a 1/2 dollar, maybe a little bigger. Well this doctor said that he could remove it for about $350. That was a doable amount! So he went in yesterday and had it removed and we also had him fixed.
The vet called me when he was out of surgery and told me that it was a lot deeper than he thought and that he had to cut some tissue. The vet had to put in 12 staples and some stitches to keep it shut. He also had to reconstruct part of his head to make it look normal when it heals. He has to keep the staples in for 21 days. If we would have known how serious the cyst surgery would have been, we wouldn't have had him fixed on the same day. I felt horrible yesterday when I saw him. It looks even worst because they had to shave his head.
It is so dry and he tries to itch it with his foot all the time, so we knew that one of us had to stay home from work to make sure that he didn't hurt himself. So, lucky me! I made sub plans and I got to have a day of rest. He also makes the back bleed whenever he shakes his head because his ears hit that spot. Hopefully he will heal okay and he won't get an infection. He is on antibiotics and pain killers. The thing that makes me the angriest, is that if we would have taken him to a vet who actually knew what he was doing, we could have had it removed when he was a puppy and avoided this whole 12 staples mess!!!

Here's after the surgery! How horrible
He just looks miserable!