Going to the vet

Why is it that every time lately that I take a dog to the vet, it comes home with stitches? Last week I took Arec and Roya in for rabies vaccinations. That would seem to be simple and straight forward enough, wouldn't it? On routine examination, the vet felt Roya's spleen and it seemed to be enlarged. Since I was scheduling a teeth cleaning for the next week we ran the pre-anesthesia bloodwork, and that came back okay. Then it was Arec's turn. As I waited for the vet, I fiddled with a spot over one eyebrow that I had thought was a scar from hunting. Son of a gun, but wasn't there a cyst there instead! I pointed it out to the vet who asked if I wanted him to just take it out while we were there, which seemed like a good idea at the time. Remember those as being famous last words. Much like, "here, hold my beer and watch this" in Wisconsin. He administered a local and Arec just sat there. An interesting instrument is used to extract those, which must have sharp edges and kindof screws down over the cyst. Then he snips off that last separation to pop it out. Darned if a little tiny blood vessel didn't get nicked and start spraying blood like a slasher movie. Out come the compresses, and the direct pressure, and sutures to close up the wound. It was still leaking, so I held pressure with compresses again and we tied a piece of gauze under his chin and around his head, tying it off with a big bow that hung limply over one eye. All through this, Arec, true to his extremely social and stable munsterlander nature, simply sat on the table. There was no thrashing or struggle and he was an ideal patient. When we got home and Tom asked what had happened to his dog, who went to the vet for a vaccination and came home with stitches in his head, I told him he should be glad the dog wasn't neutered!
The following week it was Roya's turn. Since she was there, the vet asked if I wanted to ultrasound the spleen and see what was going on. Again, it sounded like a good idea at the time. As they shaved her belly, a mammary tumor was discovered near one nipple. Oh damn. What next? Yes, lets cut out the tumor. Nothing significant showed up on the spleen but one odd spot, but no tumors or growths and we will recheck that in four months. The lump from her belly will be submitted to see if it is benign or cancerous. In the meantime, she goes home with stitches on her tummy! If this continues, the dogs are going to boycott vet visits!