Going into Debt by Visiting the Vet

Whew! Dogs are expensive! For the last couple weeks, Chauncey has been a bit lethargic. I mean,
he's not exactly a dynamo in the energy category (thankfully!), but he's been extra needy and lazy lately. We walk in the door and he's like, "Hey, what's up? I'm just going to lay here. Oh, you're going upstairs. Alright, I'll stretch and follow for a bathroom break, but then I want right back inside." Not too far out of his scope of personality, but a little off. But the main reason for the bonus visit . . . on a Saturday . . . without an appointment . . . was that he's been occasionally throwing up partially digested food. I can think of three times in the last month or two? Twice though in the last week or two (once being yesterday, on the carpet, again). Nothing weird is in it (like plastic, string, etc. we try to be SUPER careful about that kind of stuff), but given his experience 18 months ago, a little tummy listen seemed appropriate maintenance.

The girls and I thought we'd just swing by the vet after karate, drop by the library and the craft store on the way home, and be ready for lunch upon our return. Instead, we walked into a domestic zoo . . . every chair had a dog, cat, or person in it :) Normally, we wouldn't wait, but it turns out that one of the ladies had a baby about five months ago, and it turns out that she brings the baby to work every day (two of the baby's great aunties work there too, so he is well loved!). The ladies were SO busy with the four-legged crowd in the foyer, that I offered to free up some hands and hold the baby. Ha! Well, dream come true, I got to hold the little sweetie for almost three hours! We bounced, we giggled, we enjoyed a bottle and a nap and then some more bottle. He came with us into the examination room after we graduated from the lobby. It wasn't until his diaper was just about at its maximum capacity that I had to give him up :) I will say, holding that sweet, happy boy, made the looooooong wait endurable. And the girls were so low-key with the extended time doing nothing but dog wrangling.

We did have some alternate entertainment. At one point six dogs, all different breeds (there was a baby girl pit bull, an old man bull dog, a boxer, a Chihuahua, and on and on) were chilling in the office . . . the door opened and the mailman walked in! All canine eyes turned to him, with maybe a growl or two uttered from the crowd. He said, "Yeah, they love me." Everyone in the room started laughing :) Brave man. And speaking of brave, one of the many office cats strutted out into the middle of the ring. A literal circle of dogs on leashes, and she sat just out of reach meowing at each one in turn. We were waiting for the fur to fly, but the dogs all behaved themselves despite her lecture :) Another fellow opened the door, took one look inside, looked down the leash in his hand, then asked his dog ALOUD, "You just want to come back Monday?" I guess the dog agreed, because they turned around and went back to their car :)

So back to our furry friend . . . he was running a low temperature, so they decided to do blood work (results on Tuesday) and given his abdominal surgeries they wanted to do an x-ray . . . and because he's so big, they actually had to do two x-rays that they could piece together for a full view. There doesn't appear to be anything that looks dangerous in there, mostly pockets of gas (tell me about it! This is not an animal you want to follow up the stairs!). The vet thought maybe Chauncey is fighting a bacteria or some worms (he sometimes gets up into deer territory when he's running the backyard with the kids, and I've seen him eat horse droppings, so I wouldn't put it past him to sample other such delicacies, blech!) He's now on two medications (maybe more if the blood work or stool sample we get to deliver on Monday show anything else interesting). One was a once and done thing, the other is twice a day for 10 days . . . I just got the kids off that medicine administration schedule!

They also took care of some other unpleasantries (for which my carpet will be thankful, anyone know a good rug doctor?!) and we left several hundred dollars poorer, but with a slightly improved dog :)

I have to admit, that little baby I got to snuggle made it all worth while. Contented sigh :)