Vet day
I'm tired. I took both my dogs to the vet today. Separate trips. Here are some pics. The owner of Birdie's vet office (College Park Animal Hospital) has received some honors. We actually didn't see him though. We saw Dr. Beck. I read this letter while we were waiting for Dr. Bark to come in. (No, not Bark, Beck.) You can click the pic multiple times to make it larger.
Birdie is soooo good at the vet, both in the waiting room and the exam room. It took her about 2 years before she realized that going to the vet was not scary. She never wants to be taken away from me so they can weigh her though. She had gained a little weight-- she weighs just under 37 lbs, which the vet said was a good weight for her. She got her bordatella vaccine today.
After we went to the vet, I took her along to Behnke, where I walked around and looked at azaleas (not on sale yet, probably not til later in summer) and was pleased to see that they had a small section where they showcased native plants. One of the employees said Birdie was so good, and that she looked like Petey from Our Gang.
This is a native cranberry that I thought looked really interesting. You can make jam from it.
Birdie did not seem interested in getting a dog statue for the yard.
Later in the day I took Rufus to Rocky Gorge Animal Hospital to see Dr. Wolchinsky. (Yes, Rufus goes to a different vet. I started this when I had Zeus-- I was taking Zeus to Dr. Wolchinsky at RGAH because I heard that he is good with larger dogs, who sometimes have particular issues. Rufus is fairly large, so I have continued the practice.) We were late for our appointment and had to wait a while, which was actually good experience for Rufus, because he is not used to the vet experience, and tends to whine and bark explosively in that hound way when he gets bored/frustrated or wants to play with the other dogs he sees. Rufe was actually better today than the first time I took him to the vet, which was in November 2007 when I got him. Then he barked explosively in the waiting room and we had to go wait outside. This time, he whined a lot, and barked occasionally when a very interesting dog came in--he especially wanted to bark at a husky who was near his size, while a Samoyed type dog came in later and barked at him, and he pretty much ignored that dog. Go figure.
He wouldn't stand still on the scale at either vet visit so far, however, so I'm still not entirely sure how much he weighs! As the numbers plunged up and down on the scale, the doctor said, "Ah, let's say 84 lbs."
Here's a Rufus'-eye view of the beautiful new waiting room at the recently opened new building at Rocky Gorge Veterinary Hospital. The dog on the other side of the room was a model dog-- totally ignored Rufus and lay down like a good dog the entire time. I think that dog may have been a mastiff? Not sure, but he was beautiful, with a black face and fawn coat. The guy across the room was holding, I found out later, a guinea pig. Its crate is in the chair next to him.
The chairs have dog/cat patterns on the upholstery. And they are comfortable--good thing if you have to wait a while. The ceiling is high in the waiting area, and the colors are soothing, and the place seems well ventilated. There is a covered sitting area outside too. The outside front of the building looks a little like a cabin.
Dr. Wolchinsky examined Rufus's ears. He gave me a cleaner to use on them. He said I need to be cleaning them out by flushing them rather than just by wiping inside them, that I may be pushing debris down deeper in them. The dr. thought he saw evidence of that because the ears had a brown substance in them. (I had thought it was wax. :( ....) His assistant showed me two diagrams of a dog's inner ear. The first one, a normal, healthy one, looked like this. The second was was the same except that the ear canal had become much narrower because it was inflamed. The doctor said that repeated inflammations can cause the ear canal to effectively get narrower, which of course makes infection much more likely to occur and it can become a chronic thing. Unfortunately I can't find an image on the web like the second one I saw--it made me a believer! So I have to clean them every other day for the next 2 weeks or so, by shooting the liquid Rx into the ears, rubbing outside at the base of each ear, and then letting Rufus shake his head. Eventually, stuff will come out through these repeated cleanings. Good luck to me as I embark on this new method of care of the Rufe.
Rufus also had a Lyme's(sp?) test, which came out negative. Which is really good, because he was a stray boy in WV, which is prime Lyme country.
On the way home, he barked and howled some of the time, and lay quietly in the back some of the time. I'm not sure how he decided to switch back and forth, but as it stands now, if I had to make a long trip with him at this time, I'd be wearing ear plugs.
Rufus all a-howl in the back of the car. I was driving, and I just turned my camera phone to face him without even knowing if I was even capturing him at all, and I got a good one. You can't tell in this pic, but his movement is restricted. He couldn't get up in front where I was.
Birdie is soooo good at the vet, both in the waiting room and the exam room. It took her about 2 years before she realized that going to the vet was not scary. She never wants to be taken away from me so they can weigh her though. She had gained a little weight-- she weighs just under 37 lbs, which the vet said was a good weight for her. She got her bordatella vaccine today.
After we went to the vet, I took her along to Behnke, where I walked around and looked at azaleas (not on sale yet, probably not til later in summer) and was pleased to see that they had a small section where they showcased native plants. One of the employees said Birdie was so good, and that she looked like Petey from Our Gang.
This is a native cranberry that I thought looked really interesting. You can make jam from it.
Birdie did not seem interested in getting a dog statue for the yard.
Later in the day I took Rufus to Rocky Gorge Animal Hospital to see Dr. Wolchinsky. (Yes, Rufus goes to a different vet. I started this when I had Zeus-- I was taking Zeus to Dr. Wolchinsky at RGAH because I heard that he is good with larger dogs, who sometimes have particular issues. Rufus is fairly large, so I have continued the practice.) We were late for our appointment and had to wait a while, which was actually good experience for Rufus, because he is not used to the vet experience, and tends to whine and bark explosively in that hound way when he gets bored/frustrated or wants to play with the other dogs he sees. Rufe was actually better today than the first time I took him to the vet, which was in November 2007 when I got him. Then he barked explosively in the waiting room and we had to go wait outside. This time, he whined a lot, and barked occasionally when a very interesting dog came in--he especially wanted to bark at a husky who was near his size, while a Samoyed type dog came in later and barked at him, and he pretty much ignored that dog. Go figure.
He wouldn't stand still on the scale at either vet visit so far, however, so I'm still not entirely sure how much he weighs! As the numbers plunged up and down on the scale, the doctor said, "Ah, let's say 84 lbs."
Here's a Rufus'-eye view of the beautiful new waiting room at the recently opened new building at Rocky Gorge Veterinary Hospital. The dog on the other side of the room was a model dog-- totally ignored Rufus and lay down like a good dog the entire time. I think that dog may have been a mastiff? Not sure, but he was beautiful, with a black face and fawn coat. The guy across the room was holding, I found out later, a guinea pig. Its crate is in the chair next to him.
The chairs have dog/cat patterns on the upholstery. And they are comfortable--good thing if you have to wait a while. The ceiling is high in the waiting area, and the colors are soothing, and the place seems well ventilated. There is a covered sitting area outside too. The outside front of the building looks a little like a cabin.
Dr. Wolchinsky examined Rufus's ears. He gave me a cleaner to use on them. He said I need to be cleaning them out by flushing them rather than just by wiping inside them, that I may be pushing debris down deeper in them. The dr. thought he saw evidence of that because the ears had a brown substance in them. (I had thought it was wax. :( ....) His assistant showed me two diagrams of a dog's inner ear. The first one, a normal, healthy one, looked like this. The second was was the same except that the ear canal had become much narrower because it was inflamed. The doctor said that repeated inflammations can cause the ear canal to effectively get narrower, which of course makes infection much more likely to occur and it can become a chronic thing. Unfortunately I can't find an image on the web like the second one I saw--it made me a believer! So I have to clean them every other day for the next 2 weeks or so, by shooting the liquid Rx into the ears, rubbing outside at the base of each ear, and then letting Rufus shake his head. Eventually, stuff will come out through these repeated cleanings. Good luck to me as I embark on this new method of care of the Rufe.
Rufus also had a Lyme's(sp?) test, which came out negative. Which is really good, because he was a stray boy in WV, which is prime Lyme country.
On the way home, he barked and howled some of the time, and lay quietly in the back some of the time. I'm not sure how he decided to switch back and forth, but as it stands now, if I had to make a long trip with him at this time, I'd be wearing ear plugs.
Rufus all a-howl in the back of the car. I was driving, and I just turned my camera phone to face him without even knowing if I was even capturing him at all, and I got a good one. You can't tell in this pic, but his movement is restricted. He couldn't get up in front where I was.