Another day at the vet

I spent the morning at the vet specialist clinic again.  They very nicely coordinated the appointments so I could bring in both dogs at the same time.  Of course, that meant I walked from the car with 2 dogs on short leashes, carrying my purse, and Peanut's X-Rays and tried not to get dragged to the office door.

Angel had her two week post surgery followup. I was relieved to find out the stitches had been dissolving stitches.  I had feared she pulled them out.  The incision looked fine, but I expected to get a "Bad mommy" from the vet if I had let her pull them out.  The incision is just a little red and she suggested maybe a little cortisone cream to take away the itch.  And, hopefully, it will add a bad taste and inhibit licking. 

Back in 6 weeks to have X-Rays and make sure things have healed well.  I'm not sure what we do at that point if they haven't. 

Then it was Peanut's turn.  The cardiology nurse came to the first room we were in and asked a bunch of questions. But she came back and moved us to one of their rooms with their equipment.  (Only we didn't use any of that equipment.) The cardiologist talked to me at length about what problems an enlarged heart can cause and congestive heart failure when, or if, it follows.  Then he took Peanut to get an echo-cardiogram.  Angel whined almost the entire time Peanut was gone.  Fortunately, that was only about 20 minutes. 

The nurse came to get Angel and I to go to the room with the EKG machine.  The cardiologist showed me a lot of pictures and graphs and diagrams, but really, I had no idea what I was looking at.  Still it was cool to see my dog's heart beating. And there were pretty colors to show the blood flow.

All I really cared about was that despite some fluid leakage and enlargement, Peanut is doing quite well.  She had an EKG 3 years ago and I forgot to provide those results.  So this cardiologist will compare the two and see if she is deteriorating.  But she is active and alert and energetic, so we both agreed she is currently doing very well. 

He did say that the risk from anesthesia was mild to moderate.  Since her teeth don't seem to be giving her any trouble, I am not willing to take a moderate risk to have them removed.

All in all, a good day at the vet.  Not cheap, but good.  Apparently being at the vet is exhausting because both girls are sound asleep at my feet.