sick little sweetie...

over the weekend penny gave us a fright. on thursday we found a lump on her right leg and had a needle aspirate performed it that day by her vet just to make sure it wasn't a mass cell tumor. on saturday afternoon she wasn't acting her usual playful self and began to limp on that leg. now let me give you a little back story to penny limping...she's  been known to fake it before. no joke, she likes the special attention she gets from us when she 'acts' hurt...we found this out the expensive way over the summer when we took her to the animal hospital, $130 later with no diagnosis, she miraculously forgot about her limp. we decided to give it  24 hours in case she had a case of the 'fakes'  but by sunday morning she could hardly stand. we rushed her to angell memorial animal hospital (the BEST animal hospital in the country in my opinion) and they took her immediately. they did a tick panel blood test on her to test for any tick-born diseases that might cause her joints to cramp like that (we'll know the results by wednesday), started her on antibiotics, anti-inflammatory, & pain medication...and by sunday night she was able to stand on her own. today she's home with the boyfriend, resting, and i'm sure loving every minute of being with him since she's mildly infatuated with him.

it just breaks my heart to see her, or any animal for that matter, in pain. i'm so very thankful for the staff at angell memorial, they are such wonderful people to do what they do, not only for the animals, but for the human owners too. they were very prompt in contacting penny's regular vet too to inform them of her visit over the weekend.

by the way, do not do what i do and 'web md' things, for you or for your pet. i tend to self diagnose and convince myself of the worst. the doctor at angell memorial did however refer me to a great website for pet illness, veterinary partner, which i highly recommend checking out. also, i can't stress enough how happy i am we chose to get pet insurance for penny, it's a relief to know that when you need to make medical decisions for your pet that the money part of it isn't such a burden. pet care is expensive, but worth every dollar!