Yesterday we went to the vet for Alice’s rabies vaccine and to talk with the vet about some things.
I decided to make it Halloweenie and put the girls in Halloween cheerleader outfits, and I wore my grey witch hat! Brad dressed in his gold glitter jacket and a red tie to match our funness!
We spent a while in the waiting room talking with the awesome receptionist Patty and another person with their dogs. Brad got lots of pictures of us waiting!
Then we went into the room. We got Alice’s rabies shot. It was time for distemper, but since she’s so small and been having health issues, we decided to titer for distemper. Titering allows you to check the immunity level of your dog to the virus. If they have good immunity, you don’t need to vaccinate. If not, then you do.
We talked with the vet about Alice’s weight loss despite eating lots of food. She said that hyperthyroidism isn’t a thing in dogs, only cats. So she thinks that Alice just has a high metabolism. She wants us to continue feeding her the extra lunch meal every day and hopefully that will help her put on a little weight. She recommended feeding her an egg a day, so Alice will now be getting an egg every day for lunch!
We talked about spaying her, and the vet wasn’t really enthused about it since Alice is already missing organs. She was worried it would upset the balance of her body to remove yet another organ. She said her only real worry with Alice about not spaying her is the risk of pyometra which is an infection of the uterus. So when we got home, I looked it up and there is a 25% chance of unspayed dogs getting it by the age of 10. So I think we will spay, but just wait to do it until she needs her teeth cleaned or to be under anesthesia for some other reason. I’m also thinking about an ovary-sparing spay where they keep the ovaries but just remove the uterus. Then she’ll match me! We’d both have one ovary and no uterus!
They had to do bloodwork to check how she’s doing and especially monitor her pancreas values. That meant taking quite a bit of blood for that plus the titer test! Poor little Alice was not happy about them drawing her blood! They tried in her neck and she wiggled away. Then they got some but not enough out of her leg. So they had to take her to the back where the expert tech and better lights were, and they were able to get enough blood for the tests.
The whole time we were there, Hestia was looking terrified that we were about to torture her next! It was really funny!
Brad got quite a few really good pictures of the girls on my lap in the waiting room, on my lap in the exam room, and of the vet examining Alice. They are below. In them I am wearing a black, green, and red dress with a grey witch hat. Alice the sable and white Japanese Chin is wearing an orange, black, and pink cheerleading outfit. Hestia the black and white Japanese Chin is wearing a black and orange “treat or treat” (not “trick or treat”!) cheerleading outfit. Brad is wearing black pants, a green shirt, red tie, gold glitter blazer, flying crane pin, and black hat.
Too adorable
Thank you!!!