Bam Bam update...ongoing
Both boys went to the groomer yesterday, which they DESPERATELY needed:
So while they were at the groomers (which is connected to the vet), I had them take a look at Bam (even though I was terrified at what they would find). I had them run a complete blood panel and, other than one anomaly that I don't like and they couldn't explain (his red blood cell count was low, with no key indicators in the other levels that could explain it), he apparently just needs his teeth cleaned because he does have some irritation at the gum line and some tartar buildup. He gets a Dentabone everyday, but he is older, and a Shih-Tzu, so he does tend to eat those typically either on one side, or in the middle teeth area, not really hitting the front or back teeth. He's also been losing front teeth like crazy, which probably means I'm going to be seeing his tongue slip out of his mouth soon like one of those Chinese Crested's that win all those ugly dog contests...joy.
Needless to say, they didn't have an appointment available for three bloody weeks! I kind of blew up on them over that. Especially since I was worried about him wasting away by not eating. Apparently that's a non issue...the little monster has literally gained an entire pound since the last time he had a check-up, and is now OVERWEIGHT! I kind of got a bit of a lecture for giving him pure protein and raising his BUN levels (I had to get him to eat something, and chicken and hamburger seemed like the best option, right?), but now I have to cut back on his Pupperoni intake (which he will NOT like).
But, before the day was over and haircuts were finished, the vet's office did call back with a cancelation for this Thursday, so I managed to get him squeezed in WAY sooner than three weeks, so yea Bam! And they both came out super handsome!
Although I'm not sure a CBC, feeling around on a 10.5 lb pup, an antibiotic, and basically liquid baby aspirin is worth $260. I'm a bit scared for what the cleaning is going to cost, since they have to put them to sleep to do it, but it is what it is, and he needs it. Thank goodness for CareCredit! I've also been thinking that, if Bam was the one that ate my Apple Pencil, he might have a wire in his stomach causing him to bleed a bit (although you'd think I'd see evidence of that, and he probably would have sloughed that off by now, since it's been a month). I may spend the extra $100 to have them do an x-ray just in case. I'm fairly sure that was Bugsy's handy-work, but might be better safe than sorry, and he'll already be asleep. Couldn't hurt, right?
The vet did mention that the low red cell count might be an early indication of IMHA (Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia), but that's not typically a Shih-Tzu related issue, and I kind of brushed him off on that one (which he didn't like). I did tell him in our early conversations that I'm not a fan of the young vets at the clinic (which he is), just because I've had REALLY bad luck with them, especially the women ones for some reason (and I would really prefer a woman vet, but for some reason, there I can't trust them). My vet's office has two of the top vets in our state and the other one is probably one of the top 10, so I tend to stick with them. Plus, since I've been going there for 30+ years, I have the privilege of having access to those three vets, whereas newer patients don't really get a choice.
But, by the end of the day, this guy seemed to win me over because I am going to allow him to work on my baby. I did (very nicely) threaten his life if something should go wrong and warned him that, if he didn't feel confident in what he was doing, that he needed to stop immediately and either let one of the others take over, or stop and we will wait another day when one of the others can do it. He seemed ok with that and didn't seem to mind much that I was leery of him. Should I be worried about that? Maybe he gets that a lot from "old" people? Or maybe it's just something the young ones deal with coming in to that particular vet office. Everyone wants to see the "wonder" docs. Whatever the case may be, he did seem a bit more knowledgeable than I'm used to from those younger ones (even if I think he was overshooting on the IMHA).
Ironically enough, I have seen two of the younger ones back in the day. The vet that took care of my beloved Zander back in the day was younger and was AH-MAZ-ING, although he left right afterwards to open his own practice, so maybe they aren't all bad (but his dog was going through the same thing Zander was at the same time, and he had to put his down exactly one week before Zander, and the stress of both of those was what caused him to leave the "hospital" environment of my vet's office and open his practice, which doesn't do hospital work...he still uses my vet as his hospital).
After he left, I saw a woman vet for a brief time with Zachary, she did two of his three bladder surgeries, but she apparently couldn't take all the death, so she quit being a vet and is now a phlebotomist at the hospital across the street! Who gives up that all that education (and money) to draw blood on screaming kids for the same amount of money you could make at McDonalds? Surely, she could have gone into research or SOMETHING else? I run into her at the hospital (or did run, when I could get into the hospital) all the time.
But it went downhill from there. It was the young ones that refused to meet me at the office when Zachary was dying because it was a holiday, so I had to spend three hours watching him die in my arms. It was a young one that cut one of Bam's nails too short and left him bleeding like a stuck pig (and tried to blame me...figure that one out). It was a young one that skipped Bugsy's heartworm medicine, which I happen to catch and called him out on (and he didn't like it and tried to say he did give it to him...it got heated but, needless to say, one of the older docs came in and Bugs got his shot). When Bugsy was rescued, he had heartworms and had to go through TWO treatments to get rid of them. Considering we're in the South in mosquito country, that medicine is CRUCIAL for dogs here, let alone a dog who has had heartworms in the past. Since I normally take my boys in on a Saturday, which is walk-in-day, they always ask, "do you have a vet preference?". If you say "no", you get in quicker, but that often means you get a young vet. Now, I call on Friday, find out which docs are working, and make sure I ask for one of whichever of the three older ones are working, even if it means we sit there for four hours (which we had done many a time), even if we are the first ones through the door. Better safe than sorry.
Funny side note, my Sister's dog is getting his shots Thursday as well, so my Brother-In-Law is bringing him in...he's a White Lab. They have to put him to sleep just to get him out of the truck! That dog is a HORSE. He has dog toys bigger than my Bam! So at least the cousins will be together that day, even if in dreamland!
Anyhoo, send out the good vibes Bam's way for Thursday, because the little guy is gonna be in a LOT of pain for a few days and let's just hope that's his ONLY problem! IMHA is a death sentence and I don't even want to go there, but they are going to have to do a LOT more convincing than a low RBC count to make me believe he has IMHA!
So while they were at the groomers (which is connected to the vet), I had them take a look at Bam (even though I was terrified at what they would find). I had them run a complete blood panel and, other than one anomaly that I don't like and they couldn't explain (his red blood cell count was low, with no key indicators in the other levels that could explain it), he apparently just needs his teeth cleaned because he does have some irritation at the gum line and some tartar buildup. He gets a Dentabone everyday, but he is older, and a Shih-Tzu, so he does tend to eat those typically either on one side, or in the middle teeth area, not really hitting the front or back teeth. He's also been losing front teeth like crazy, which probably means I'm going to be seeing his tongue slip out of his mouth soon like one of those Chinese Crested's that win all those ugly dog contests...joy.
Needless to say, they didn't have an appointment available for three bloody weeks! I kind of blew up on them over that. Especially since I was worried about him wasting away by not eating. Apparently that's a non issue...the little monster has literally gained an entire pound since the last time he had a check-up, and is now OVERWEIGHT! I kind of got a bit of a lecture for giving him pure protein and raising his BUN levels (I had to get him to eat something, and chicken and hamburger seemed like the best option, right?), but now I have to cut back on his Pupperoni intake (which he will NOT like).
But, before the day was over and haircuts were finished, the vet's office did call back with a cancelation for this Thursday, so I managed to get him squeezed in WAY sooner than three weeks, so yea Bam! And they both came out super handsome!
Although I'm not sure a CBC, feeling around on a 10.5 lb pup, an antibiotic, and basically liquid baby aspirin is worth $260. I'm a bit scared for what the cleaning is going to cost, since they have to put them to sleep to do it, but it is what it is, and he needs it. Thank goodness for CareCredit! I've also been thinking that, if Bam was the one that ate my Apple Pencil, he might have a wire in his stomach causing him to bleed a bit (although you'd think I'd see evidence of that, and he probably would have sloughed that off by now, since it's been a month). I may spend the extra $100 to have them do an x-ray just in case. I'm fairly sure that was Bugsy's handy-work, but might be better safe than sorry, and he'll already be asleep. Couldn't hurt, right?
The vet did mention that the low red cell count might be an early indication of IMHA (Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia), but that's not typically a Shih-Tzu related issue, and I kind of brushed him off on that one (which he didn't like). I did tell him in our early conversations that I'm not a fan of the young vets at the clinic (which he is), just because I've had REALLY bad luck with them, especially the women ones for some reason (and I would really prefer a woman vet, but for some reason, there I can't trust them). My vet's office has two of the top vets in our state and the other one is probably one of the top 10, so I tend to stick with them. Plus, since I've been going there for 30+ years, I have the privilege of having access to those three vets, whereas newer patients don't really get a choice.
But, by the end of the day, this guy seemed to win me over because I am going to allow him to work on my baby. I did (very nicely) threaten his life if something should go wrong and warned him that, if he didn't feel confident in what he was doing, that he needed to stop immediately and either let one of the others take over, or stop and we will wait another day when one of the others can do it. He seemed ok with that and didn't seem to mind much that I was leery of him. Should I be worried about that? Maybe he gets that a lot from "old" people? Or maybe it's just something the young ones deal with coming in to that particular vet office. Everyone wants to see the "wonder" docs. Whatever the case may be, he did seem a bit more knowledgeable than I'm used to from those younger ones (even if I think he was overshooting on the IMHA).
Ironically enough, I have seen two of the younger ones back in the day. The vet that took care of my beloved Zander back in the day was younger and was AH-MAZ-ING, although he left right afterwards to open his own practice, so maybe they aren't all bad (but his dog was going through the same thing Zander was at the same time, and he had to put his down exactly one week before Zander, and the stress of both of those was what caused him to leave the "hospital" environment of my vet's office and open his practice, which doesn't do hospital work...he still uses my vet as his hospital).
After he left, I saw a woman vet for a brief time with Zachary, she did two of his three bladder surgeries, but she apparently couldn't take all the death, so she quit being a vet and is now a phlebotomist at the hospital across the street! Who gives up that all that education (and money) to draw blood on screaming kids for the same amount of money you could make at McDonalds? Surely, she could have gone into research or SOMETHING else? I run into her at the hospital (or did run, when I could get into the hospital) all the time.
But it went downhill from there. It was the young ones that refused to meet me at the office when Zachary was dying because it was a holiday, so I had to spend three hours watching him die in my arms. It was a young one that cut one of Bam's nails too short and left him bleeding like a stuck pig (and tried to blame me...figure that one out). It was a young one that skipped Bugsy's heartworm medicine, which I happen to catch and called him out on (and he didn't like it and tried to say he did give it to him...it got heated but, needless to say, one of the older docs came in and Bugs got his shot). When Bugsy was rescued, he had heartworms and had to go through TWO treatments to get rid of them. Considering we're in the South in mosquito country, that medicine is CRUCIAL for dogs here, let alone a dog who has had heartworms in the past. Since I normally take my boys in on a Saturday, which is walk-in-day, they always ask, "do you have a vet preference?". If you say "no", you get in quicker, but that often means you get a young vet. Now, I call on Friday, find out which docs are working, and make sure I ask for one of whichever of the three older ones are working, even if it means we sit there for four hours (which we had done many a time), even if we are the first ones through the door. Better safe than sorry.
Funny side note, my Sister's dog is getting his shots Thursday as well, so my Brother-In-Law is bringing him in...he's a White Lab. They have to put him to sleep just to get him out of the truck! That dog is a HORSE. He has dog toys bigger than my Bam! So at least the cousins will be together that day, even if in dreamland!
Anyhoo, send out the good vibes Bam's way for Thursday, because the little guy is gonna be in a LOT of pain for a few days and let's just hope that's his ONLY problem! IMHA is a death sentence and I don't even want to go there, but they are going to have to do a LOT more convincing than a low RBC count to make me believe he has IMHA!
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Linda