I’ve been so distracted with my 12 Days of Petmas stuff and this nasty bronchitis that I haven’t been writing too much of substance. Please forgive me. My throat aches.
However, I do have some stories from the week to share. These are the sorts of highs and lows that make me alternately love my job or want to stick 15 blades in my eyeballs.
I had 2 appointments this morning at 10 am. The first was a follow up on a Golden Retriever who had come to see me last month on a lark. The owner had taken her dog to her regular vet for years, and the poor dog was so itchy and uncomfortable she figured getting a second opinion wouldn’t hurt. In 20 minutes I had diagnosed a yeast hypersensitivity, something that wouldn’t respond to the months of antibiotics the dog had been on.*
After 3 weeks on antifungal meds, the dog had a new lease on life and looked amazing. “If I knew you better, I’d hug you!” gushed the owner, who must have thought I was a cold hearted Grinch for not taking the obvious opening there, but I was petrified of getting her sick with my super-bronchitis bug. So I politely smiled from the other side of the table, and covered my mouth when I coughed.
On this high, I then had to go into the other 10 am appointment, a man whose bulldog was having congestion problems. He was, for lack of a better descriptor, being willfully obtuse since we had discussed the particulars of owning a brachycephalic dog on multiple occasions.
“You do realize,” I said, “that you have this prong collar on inside out?”
He looked aghast. “The pointy things and supposed to point in? But…then that would poke her!”
“Right,” I responded. “Which is why she shouldn’t have one on at all.” I tried to take it off. “Especially not one that is two sizes too small.”
The owner looked skeptical. We talked (again) about the dog’s severely stenotic nares, elongated soft palate, and probable elbow dysplasia. “Please promise me you’ll put this dog on a harness instead.” He shrugged. Then he (again) declined to schedule a spay since he was going to breed the dog as soon as she came into heat at 7 months or so. His eyes glossed over as I made my plea to please not do something so ill advised. Lord help us all.
(*I’m not trying to ding the other vet in the scenario here- sometimes we get stuck in tunnel vision pursuing a diagnosis and miss taking a step back and finding the real problem. I had a mortifying moment many moons ago after sending a dog to the dermatologist because his allergies were getting worse and worse and I couldn’t manage them, even with prednisone. Turns out he had Demodex mites, a condition that was worsened by the prednisone. I took the owner’s word for it that he had been tested for it at another vet. It happens to the best of us.)
Do you ever just want to shake some sense into some people? But the guy was probably convinced when he bought the dog (from a backyard breeder for probably 2k) that he will ‘make his money back’ when he breeds her and sells the litter. Doesn’t matter if the dog is a quality individual, and deserves to be bred. Doesn’t matter that responsible breeders, who vaccinate, worm, microchip, train, socialize etc. etc. don’t make money when they have a litter. (and they don’t ‘sell’ them because every puppy is usually spoken for by other breeders before they are born)
Does no one watch Animal Planet??
I just decided to withhold helpful advice and hope the dog doesn’t get pregnant.
The good news is that being a bulldog there’s a fair shot she can’t conceive without AI anyway…
Also withheld.
I cant imagine having to deal with the senseless…Poor puppies who have to live with them
while reading this post , I have a vision of Dr V having a vision bubble in the back of her mind lunging accros the table, grasping the person by the neck shaking them and saying , ” how does that feel ” completely hypothetical dream but would never happen LOLOL
Dr V, I dont know how you do it..:-) But you do it very well 🙂
Keep the
I try to give people benefit of the doubt- a lot of people really are just uninformed, but when they ignore advice and continue to do things like place prong collars on the bulldogs- then I get frustrated.
oops meant to say ” keep the blogs coming ” and hope you feel much better soon ! 🙂
I sent home a pug the other night after a c-section/spay; the pup still inside was dead by the time she was taken to surgery, she had the other 2 pups naturally before she got into labor troubles. When the owners came to pick her up, they mentioned to my receptionist that a) they were disappointed that the surviving pups were both black (as was mom) because they won’t sell for as much money, and b) that they will probably end up selling the bitch once she’s weaned the pups because she can’t make them money anymore. Sigh. It boggles the mind…
Oh, that’s heartbreaking. People are so awful.
Dogs are not, nor have they ever been, meant for our manipulation or financial solutions!! They are COMPANIONS. They are living, breathing creatures with souls and FEELINGS. I often hear the argument “They’re just dogs.” As opposed to what–people?? People SUCK! Dogs should be treated better than humans because they ARE better!! Being a human doesn’t make you any more special than any other creature. So we talk and have opposable thumbs. Big effing deal. That’s the extent of intelligence for most people anyway.
That was in response to Megan’s story, btw…