Pet recovering from surgery - what to expect?

Sooner or later you're going to cross this bridge. Particularly if you've purchased a pure bred dog (sometimes a cat too). I can't stress this enough...if you want to have disposable income for things like food and clothing, stick with mutts or dogs that are mixed breeds.

Why would I say such a thing? Let me toss a few words your way: Medication...visits to the vet...surgeries...allergies...
See the x-ray to your right? Check out the hardware on Big Tuna, our English Bulldog after her knee surgery. Can you say a couple grand? And she has also blown out her other knee. Yes, English Bulldogs have a genetic predisposition to blowing out their knees. Consider the rest of the rich genetic legacy that Bulldogs have to pass on: skin problems, breathing issues, renal disease, shorter life spans, eye problems...oh vey! Did I mention that Tuna has also had two eye surgeries to correct issues?

Our other English Bulldog, Mr. Bishop has had surgery for distichis (congenital issue with eye lashes growing back into your eye. Okay, maybe not your eye, but the dogs eye.)  He has hip dysplasia, a not uncommon problem for the bullies (as well as German shepards, etc..) For this we could have bought the second home.

Check out the video below on her post op surgery recovery. She's so stoked on meds you might even notice when she starts to whimper at the hallucinations.

And of course we're gearing up for the second surgery. My husband has taken up a second job catching, skinning (hey, someones got to do it) and selling earth worm pelts to pay for the surgery.

If there is one lesson to take away from this, it's not that I need help but that you should strongly consider adding a mutt to the family. Unless of course money is no object and you understand what you're getting into with the pure breeds. And it goes without saying (so I'll say it again) that you should not buy a pure breed if you cannot afford to address the legion of health issues that will undoubtedly follow and trapse through the door of your home as you welcome your pet. One more time so I'm clear. Do not get a pure bred animal unless you are willing to spend the money to properly care for that dog or cat. Now I know some of you may be thinking, "How dare she dictate what I should consider getting....blah...blah...blah...." You want to know why I feel so strongly about this? Because I'm reminded of it everyday when I see one of these poor kids come in with a horrible skin problem and someone wants to put the animal down because they can't afford to treat them or worse yet, because they don't want to spend the money on an animal that they took in and is dependent on them, I want to scream. Think about that for a moment: being put down because someone doesn't want to spend the money on the animal to take care of a skin condition. I know, not everyone has money. That's why I'm tyring to save you some. Do your homework, take responsibility, and you'll be fine if you know what you're getting into. if you don't have a nice chunk of change set aside for the medical problems, don't do it.