[Dailydrool] Please Help Panicked Momslave!

[Kay, Nancy K *HS]

Our Sweet Sarah has a sebaceous cyst on her thigh, and The Cyst decided it was finally full and big enough to burst by itself in September, about 3 weeks before I had a business trip planned across the country (we're in Virginia, the conference was in Seattle - Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference - were any droolers there, too??).  We took dear Sarah to the vet who cleaned it up by clipping her hair all around it and wiping with something antiseptic, and they put her on an antibiotic for a week. The vet said that when it "calmed down", we should have it removed.  Well, it did calm down, and it was about a week before we had to leave town, so we just let well enough alone since we didn't want her recovering from the surgical removal of The Cyst while we were gone.  And now, two months later,  it's fine.

I bet The Cyst will come back, since that's what cysts do, and I expect we'll do the same thing next time -- clean it up, and then leave it alone.  Sarah is 12, and we're hesitant to knock her out with anesthesia unless it's absolutely necessary.  Here's a "before" photo  http://www.pbase.com/notawahoo/image/103301301
and here's what it looks like now as she's sleeping in the chair next to my computer, two months later
http://www.pbase.com/notawahoo/image/106017560

Her hair is growing back, the cyst is totally flat and no longer draining.  We call it "Sarah's bulls-eye" ;)

It was extra-gross for about a week, and the vet said it was ok to go ahead and let Sarah clean it up herself.  Since she could reach it easily, she licked it a lot, but not obsessively, so we just let her do it.  With that and the antibiotics, everything worked out ok.  I appreciated all the encouragement I got from a lot of droolers who'd gone through the same thing.  It's really gross(!) but it's not bad.

Nancy, and Sweet Sarah and Frank the Tank
Keswick, VA