Dog Blog

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Happy Birthday to me. I blew out a candle on some cake, but I really already got my fondest wish in finding my new basset buddy, Peaches. The Maxwell nominations were certainly some wishes come true, too.

I took Peaches to the vet today, a day early, for the "free" exam you get when you adopt a dog from the SSPCA, which of course never ends up being free. I took her in today because her coughing and sneezing seemed worse. They checked her over thoroughly, and she does indeed have kennel cough. She is in excellent health otherwise. The virus runs its course in three weeks, but I insisted the vet give her some antibiotics to hasten her recovery. Poor little girl has been through enough already. They told me I could give her Robitussin to ease the coughing. I'll need to take her back for a Leptospirosis vaccine, but not until she's over the kennel cough. Her body is already fighting that infection. And when I do, I'll be taking her to my regular vet, which is not a VCA facility. After my terrible experience with Daisy, I will never take my dog to another one of these corporate-run outfits. All they care about is making a buck off you, in my opinion. At least that is my perception of every such vet I've been to. My pretty Peaches deserves the best.

I had a scare when the vet clinic I took her to called late in the evening to tell me to be sure not to give her anything with acetominephin in it, which is toxic to dogs. When I looked on the Robitussin label, the first active ingredient listed was acetominephin! I can't believe they told me to use that; surely they must have known what was in it or they wouldn't have left the message on my phone cautioning me about it--too late, unfortunately. I could have done great harm to a smaller dog than Peaches. I was very upset because I had just given her the second dose that day. Fortunately, I gave her only about 1/3 of a baby dropper full (part of which she spit out because it tastes so nasty), but I was still worried. I called an emergency vet who assured me that I had probably done no harm because of the small dosage and her body weight, which is just under 40 pounds. I called our regular vet the next morning to be sure and was told I probably don't need to worry about any liver damage but to observe her for the next week, just in case. It takes about a week to work out of their system. No more cough medicine!

Bubba, who is still top dog at the Wright house, tells me it's bedtime.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home