Friday, January 16, 2009

Boone (and Pixel) go to the vet


I have had Boone for over a year now and he hasn't seen the vet in all that time. He has been healthy, and I haven't had reason to take him. But there were a few things I wanted to talk to Kendra (my vet) about. So yesterday we trekked off to the vet with plenty of cheese strings in our pockets.

Pixel tagged along as she hadn't met my vet yet, and I was curious as to what she weighed now.

In the waiting room there was lots of spinning. When Boone is nervous, or excited he spins. Like a Sheltie. Trying to manage him, and a puppy, and the leashes, was a bit much so finally I made him lie down so I could untangle them.

They were both good with the scale and hopped right up there- Boone weighs 10kg, and Pixel weigh 7.9kg! Not a lot of difference in weight...

Pixel was very excited to meet Kendra- even more so when she got yummy cookies. Boone was pretty excited too, and wasn't nearly as nervous as I though he'd be.

I talked to Kendra about a few things- one, his patellas- I have seen him hitch in his back right leg. She felt them and didn't think that there was much laxity (sp?) and that it wasn't likely to be a patella issue.

On that note we also talked about his back dew claws. I have a suspicion that it is his dewclaw that is causing him to hitch sometimes- he is very sensitive with them, and I know that the hair has gotten tangled around them before. I have also seen him catch them on runs in the coulees. To remove them is painful though, and he has to be put under, and well, it hurts. So I am still not really sure what I want to do about it. Kendra explained to me the risks, and how it is done. We get dewclaws taken off a lot of the rescue dogs that come in- mostly big back ones that dangle so I have seen dogs who are recovering from it...but it is different when it is your own dog. I am leaning towards having them off....we'll see....

And then we talked about the reverse sneezing that he has been doing for two months. It could be an allergy- which is what I thought when it first started. But now for this long I am not sure. And it's not like he only does it once in a while. It is at least once a day. I am going to switch laundry detergent and move his crate to a new room...

And finally he got a microchip, and Kendra filled out the vet portion of the CKC paperwork needed for a pen number. I have everything in an envelope ready to send. Keep your fingers crossed that CKC approves us.

6 comments:

Sarah said...

yes change the detergent - for K when i was his stuff i use the no scent and dye stuff. You could try Purex. he actually got a rash from really smelly detergent. its worth a shot!

Jules said...

An exciting day! I can't believe Pixel is almost as big as Boone!

Sue said...

Samba had to have her front dew claws removed when she was two years old as she had torn each of them that summer. We tried boots and taping them, but finally just got it over with. No regrets.

My Porties are all spinners. Glad to hear there's another spinner out there.

Blazingstar said...

Pixel is one solid puppy!

I hope Boone gets his CKC# - I'm sure he will.

Reverse sneezing - this is gross but it can be caused by nasal mites.... our dogs had them years ago and after treating them, Huxley never reversed sneezed again (he used to do it lots before then). Our other dogs also had them, but never reversed sneezed... it seems to affect different dogs different ways....

Anonymous said...

in case this helps you and you vet figer it out, the reverse sneezing has been going on his entire life.

if you do decide to remove his dewclaws you should also advise his vet of how he reacted when he was neutered, he may be normal now it was several years ago, but just in case. normally he is fine with vets(though a little nervous as you saw!) however when he woke up after his neuter it affected him somehow, he was trying to shred all the vets and techs, they had pushed a chair up against his kennel and asked us to retrieve him because they could not get near him. he was fine going in, he was fine going under, and he was fine with vets after the fact, it was just while he was waking up.

onecollie said...

my old collie Ben did a lot of reverse sneezing, turns out he needed surgery to thin out the flappy thingy at the back of his throat. Sorry, don't know exactly what is is called LOL!!