It’s been a LONG couple of days, so I only have energy for some quick medical updates. Here is the latest on Lilly’s health, Ginko’s health, and that dog emergency we witnessed last week.
Lilly’s Blood Work, etc.
Our new veterinarian called Saturday evening to let me know that other than showing some dehydration Lilly’s blood work is perfectly normal. Every value right is where it should be. That’s good news since she takes two behavior medications that can have side-effects.
I asked about the heart murmur she thought she heard last year, and she looked at her notes and said that she did NOT hear anything weird this year, so maybe it was just a fluke in 09.
We talked about our pre-vaccine mitigation efforts and decided it worked pretty well since Lilly did NOT get overly sick. So, I guess that’s our new model for handling the fact that Lilly’s body doesn’t take kindly to certain vaccines.
Ginko’s Health
We went on another veterinary odyssey yesterday with Ginko so that he could get his check-up, blood work, etc. No word yet on his blood numbers, but she felt some “squishiness” in his right knee, around his TPLO plate and screws.
That along with his knee emergency in January and some pain symptoms we discussed, like the startle/hop he does when his knees really hurt, led her to recommend that we get that plate and those screws out of his right knee.
Yep, that’d be knee surgery #3 for our big boy. Orthopedic surgery recovery for summer. What fun! (insert sarcastic face here)
So, I’ve asked for an estimate on what their visiting orthopedic surgeon would charge to take that hardware out. And, I’ll call the surgeon in Colorado Springs who did Ginko’s TPLO on both knees back in 2003-2004. I’d rather not have cross-state travel on top of everything right now, so unless they say, “Hey, we’ll do that for free,” or it’s WAY, way cheaper … we’ll probably have the surgery done locally.
They took Ginko into the back alone to give his vaccine and draw blood, after the vet was done examining him and chatting with us. (I make Tom go with me since Ginko is SUCH a handful.)
We muzzled him for the blood draw, just to be safe, but he did MUCH better for the rest of his exam. He took treats. He kissed the vet on the face. He only grumbled a little bit when she checked his knees and his organs and his boy parts.
So, that’s something. Yes?
I don’t know why it doesn’t bother me as much for them to take Ginko back. I guess it’s because I believe he probably does do better when we are not around.
That Dog Who Wasn’t Breathing
Being me, I asked if she could confirm the outcome for that non-breathing dog who arrived last week during our vet visit. I was right that the dog did not make it, but they did manage to get her breathing at first, only to find out she had a BIG heart tumor.
I didn’t want to be nosier than I already was for asking, but I sure hope her mom got the chance to say goodbye.
Oddly (or maybe not) the fact that the dog that stopped breathing had a big heart tumor made me feel better. Thinking that an otherwise healthy dog might have led a long life had she been saved in time is awful, while knowing that a sick dog was spared a lot of suffering by dying suddenly is more acceptable. That doesn’t make it immediately less awful for the owner, but I think it might provide her some solace in the long run. It would for me.
KB, I only mentioned the vaccine protocol thing in brief last week. Essentially, I gave Lilly 25 mg of benadryl about an hour before our veterinary appointment, adn then our doctor gave her a shot of some steroid in addition to the lepto vaccine.
Lilly did seem a little “sick” the next day, but she did not get a big hive. She did not vomit. She did not seem scary lethargic like last year.
I’m glad you got good news. And I’m sorry to hear the dog with the emergency didn’t make it.
So glad to hear that the heart murmur is no longer there. Weird. Sorry about the knee, though. Even with everything going on in your life, you ask about a dog you don’t even know and stop to think about the dog mom. You’re an amazing woman.
RE the heart murmur – it’s a totally different species, but my cat had something weird like that happen when she was younger. Heart murmur one visit, not the next. The vet originally had me pretty scared, too, because he was concerned about it.
Sorry to hear about Ginko’s knee. Hope it won’t cost an arm and a leg and hope it takes away some of his current ouchies.
Did I miss the pre-vaccine mitigation program? Can you point me to it? I’m glad to hear about Lilly’s good health. K had a heart murmur on one exam and (fingers crossed), not again. Maybe that’s common?
So sorry to hear about Ginko’s knee hardware. I didn’t know that they sometimes had to take it out. For my back, they keep saying that all the hardware can stay in. However, if they ever do surgery in the vicinity of the hardware again, they’ll take it out. I guess that tells me that the hardware does sometimes cause problems…