Oughta be poopin' out cash soon...

Woof.

Our dog is over nine years old. A dignified old lady dog. She's been slowing down a bit, (as in sleeping most of the day and unable to stand up more than a minute or so) and since we love her, I took her to the vet last month to be checked over.

After the vet spent a WHOLE HOUR with her, going over her from nose to tail, here's what we found out.

She has some vision deterioration, but can still see fine when it's light. He said she probably should not drive after dark anymore. Ha.

She has no fleas. Well, I knew that. She had them once, and we found out she's seriously allergic to them. She puffed up around her eyes and nibbled patches of skin bare before we even had a clue what was going on. She'd never had them before. After Frontline, she didn't have them anymore and we haven't seen one in years.

She has arthritis. I knew that, too, poor girl. She sometimes has a hard time getting around.

She had an ear infection in her right ear.

Her anal ducts were plugged. Since this is strictly a visual blog... no audio and NO SMELLS, you are fortunately spared the gorier details of that particular cleaning. *puke*

Here were his recommendations.
She weighs 75 lbs. She's 15 lbs overweight, which is a lot for a dog, even though she's a large dog. So, he prescribed some dog food that's low in calories while still giving her the stuff she needs. He said we must stop giving her table scraps. He prescribed some ear drops. He also prescribed some stuff called Synovi G3.

I walked out of there $141.00 poorer than I was when I went in, but I did not get an itemized bill. An oversight.. didn't even think about it with my upset dog, all she wanted to do was get in the car (I have to lift her into the back.) She's a pound puppy, and was about six months old when we got her in January of 1997. She's been agitated and scared every single time we've taken her in the car. Doesn't matter if it's hiking or just to the post office, she just freaks out. We think that someone must have just thrown her out of a car, which is how she ended up at the shelter. Not sure, and of course there's no way of knowing, but when we take her anywhere, she starts this high pitched keening, she smells bad, she paces, and hair just falls off her like a shower. UGH.

She's doing MUCH better this month. I think she's regressed at least two years with regard to her physical condition. Much more active and just all around feeling better. We're glad because we really do love her. She's just part of the family.

We ran out of the Synovi and the food yesterday, and I went in to get more.
THAT'S when I got the itemized bill. The Synovi was 58 bucks!!! OH MY GAWD!!

I looked online at different pet pharmacies. Evidently, it's just not cheap stuff. I'm dying to know exactly how they make it, maybe I can make it cheaper! AAACKK!