Tuesday, May 25, 2010

A Few Updates...................


Misty remains on her Glucosamine and seems to be doing well. Both girls a little slower this week as it is "unseasonably" hot and humid. Ugh!

I still have Kola on her Levothyroxine and she's maintaining a healthy weight, however, even though she has shed out fairly well, her coat seems a bit more course this year. I still think she's at the very least pre-Cushingnoid. We'll just keep her on it for now and watch her closely as I'm still not willing to risk a laminitis episode with the high dose steroid test. Seems to me, there should be another way of testing.

Kota is happy and settling in well. We had our Dog Vet visit today. I think they thought we were all nuts as of course as usual, our dogs were not the most well behaved at least not in the waiting room. We did discuss with the Vet Kota's crusty nose and started him on Vitamin E and Fish Oil. Also squeezing the Vitamin E directly on his nose. Also the use of some Cortisone cream for it. The Vet seems to think it's more related to his tongue slopping over it constantly, sort of like when one licks their lips and chaps them. He also had his prostate checked as he is still intact as a male and it was enlarged and asymmetrical (meaning one part of it bigger than the other) and she suggested neutering him as we have no plans on breeding. The Vet didn't want to make that suggestion until she checked his prostate first as he is extremely well behaved and having all of his parts does not affect how he behaves. The concern only that as he is slightly older and as he ages he could have serious prostate problems. So we will have a serious think about it before we commit to anything.

Unfortunately Mina's weighty issue is NOT as improved as we had hoped. So we'll continue on her weight loss program and cut back her food just a little bit more.

And note where exactly Spot is located in this pic. Look closely. All 61 pounds of him. As we were waiting for our appointments, a storm rolled in and Spot turns into a nervous wreck, so he climbed onto Stephen. Marvelous!
So Mina 53 pounds, still needs to lose about 10 pounds. Spot 61 pounds and fine as a larger Border Collie and we will try Benadryl for his nerves when a storm rolls in. Kota weighs 68 pounds and the Vet said he was fine. All in all, the Vet was impressed with the over all good health of all the dogs. No bugs, no worms and all started on their heart worm regimen now. Everyone got their toenails trimmed and we will schedule a grooming appointment at PetSmart for Kota with his long hair as the groomer said with his breed, a good bath and blow dry will help to restore the proper oils in his coat and help to keep him cool over the summer.
And every time anybody walked into the Vet's office, our noisy crew would set off to barking and continue to bark as each one had to have the last word.........Yeah right! I'm sure they were all relieved to see us leave when it was all done, although, there were many giggles. But appreciated the payment of $373.70 for the bill.........Doh!

5 comments:

Katharine Swan said...

I don't know how bad Kota's nose is, but the owner of my old barn had a dog very much like Kota that had a crusty nose. With her it was Lupus. There is some good information on causes of crusty noses on this page:

http://www.justanswer.com/questions/ae2c-why-does-my-dog-have-a-really-crusty-nose

I hope it's nothing serious, but you might want to ask your vet about the possibility!

cdncowgirl said...

Its kind of a mini-circus when we take our house pets to the vet too. We try to get them all in at once as its easier when Pie can help me and he only gets the one day off. So its 2 rather large dogs and 2 cats.
Funny, ours are usually the best behaved in the waiting room! :)

Glad to hear all your pooches are basically healthy.

Jeni said...

vet trips are so much fun. I went with my mom once when she took a litter (10) of puppies for their first shots/worming/checkup talk about chaos!

Callie said...

Thanks All, Thanks, Katherine, We did discuss the possibility of something autoimmune, Lupus included but she didn't think that his dry nose was the right type of crust for something like that. That's why we started the Vitamin E.

Grey Horse Matters said...

Your girls look good. I'm glad that he's settling in and I'm sure his crusty nose will be fixed with the vitamin E. Sounds like a fun time at the vets. I love taking these two with me, there's never a time that they don't wind up tangling themselves with their leashes. They could lose a little weight themselves. But to hear them tell it they're nearly at death's door and I'm starving them!