Last week we had some excitement with Maggie. On Wednesday, I noticed that she had some bloody drainage coming from her left side. After further inspection, I found that she had a couple of areas that were like sores or wounds. Only one was "oozing", the other looked like it had a scab over it. And she was also swollen on the left side of her neck and shoulder. I could tell that it hurt and she didn't feel well, so the next day I brought her in to the vet to see what was going on. I didn't know if she had gotten bitten by something or gotten attacked by a stick (she's been known to get long sticks stuck in her collar) or it was something more serious. The vet shaved her neck and found that it was a cyst (or cysts) that had gotten infected after she scratched it and her skin was getting stretched by all the swelling and fluid build up. So she got put on some oral antibiotics and a cream to put on her skin and we were told to come back in on Monday to reevaluate. Depending on how well she was healing, she may or may not need surgery to remove the cyst(s). By the end of the weekend, she had stopped oozing and was starting to look and act like her old self. I brought her in on Monday and the vet said that she was healing very well and she didn't lose any of her skin so we will continue antibiotics and come back when she's finished taking them and go from there. Thank goodness! We were very happy with that result and very happy that Maggie is feeling better. She looks a lot better, too. She is prone to these "cysts" and has a few of them that have been there for years and not bothered her, so we leave them alone. They are sort of like pimples, harmless unless they rupture or get infected. Hopefully we have seen the worst and nothing like this will happen again. And the only way to describe how bad it was is to show a picture of it. And a little warning, these pictures are pretty graphic so if you get grossed out easily, DO NOT click on the picture! But, me being a nurse, I have to show you! And I know some of you are curious and want to see it, too!
