As you may know, as dogs get older, they start getting lumps all over the place...they're called papinomas, and are very much like warts.
Well, I got home, yesterday morning, and found that one of them had popped open, leaving an oozing wound on Shadow's shoulder. At the time, however, I didn't know what it was.
Got the poor girl to the vet's office (nice new digs, mind you...Parkside Animal Hospital, just off of IN37 and 126th Street in Fishers, IN), and it turned out that this was just one massive papinoma, with a good sized root system (very much like a wart), which wouldn't heal on its own, but would have to be removed. Surgery would be about $100, and could be done the next day...small incision, 2 stitches, no worries.
Took her there, this morning, picked her up this afternoon. Larger incision, 5 stitches.
Apparently, the bugger had some really large blood vessels feeding it, and they had to go deeper to get it all out and the bleeders closed off.
Shadow doesn't seem to mind it...though she didn't seem to mind it in the first place. I just didn't want her bleeding all over my house, or for her to get an infection.
$450+ last year, to repair her knee, $100+ today on this...well, at least it's not the thousands of dollars that people often spend on one surgery, just to extend a dog's life for another 2 or 3 months. I love my Shadow enough to care for her when she needs it. I'm just glad that, so far (knock on wood), it's not driven me to bankruptcy. : -)