Cardinal wrote:Ive been stretched really thin recently and havent had a chance to really be around.
Sardonyx had a vet visit Monday where she got a yearly work up and we went ahead and had her spayed. I wanted to keep her intact longer but she made it until 2 years old, which is generally my personal requirement lol, and with family living with us and Sentry being an intact male.. I cant trust folks in the house to follow my directions when she goes into heat next time. I can easily crate and rotate, keep an eagle eye, etc as can my husband but throw in well meaning family... yeah no. We nearly had an incident with her last heat as I got stuck at my tattoo shop far longer than I thought itd take and family let them out to go potty and family couldnt remember if they went out together or seperate. It was seperate but.. how do you not remember?!
She got a glowing review from staff and on her chart shes in great shape... except heartworm positive. Ive had time to process but I was devastated. Got her history and we either got extremely unlucky using preventative or shes been carrying them since we got her. Until recently most vets in our area used a filter test; the test would detect heartworms in the llarval stage. Dogs on prevention can easily pass these as prevention kills the larval stage while still carrying adult worms. Now they use a test that detects a hormone the adult female worm puts off. She has a medium load which is probably several active female worms.
A routine vax, check up, and spay has turned into a $1,000 vet bill. : throws confetti:. For the next month she will be on doxycycline twice a day. Heartworms share a symbiotic relationship with an organism that aids in most of its functions including reproduction. A high prolonged dose of doxy kills these organisms and renders adult heartworms weakened and infertile. From there she gets a shot of medication to kill the adult worms and stays with the vet, later two more shots and two more over nights. Its a 6 month process and Im leaving stuff out but thats the treatment gist. Hurray.
Its like... you do everything right and still get slapped.
Ouch, I'd never heard of that in regards to heartworm. I'm going to ask my vet what kind of test they use next time I'm there.
I'm glad Sardonyx's spay went well. Yeah, it's amazing how quickly vet bills can escalate.
@halogen. - It's hard to say since some dogs do fine mixing raw with kibble and some don't. There's no way to know unless you try. You can also give the chicken feet at another time, like midday or at least a couple hours after they've eaten their kibble, that might be easier if they do have a sensitive tummy. You could also offer dried feet instead of raw. Be aware though if your dog is a gulper they may not get as much teeth cleaning effects as you would like. In that case I'd try something else that takes them longer to eat.
Do you brush their teeth? My vet recommened this https://www.healthymouth.com/DOG_Essential_Healthymouth_Topical_Gel_2oz_Jar_p/dg02.htm, and I've also used http://www.petzlife.com/ as well which seems to help.
turned that on the 15th! he is like 11 pounds now ^^
