Maxxie and Sophie's Annual Physical Exam

We took Maxxie and Sophie to the Vet May 8, 2006

Every spring, we take our two dogs to our vet and have an annual checkup performed. We do this mainly to get those HEARTWORM pills that we give them on the first of every month between spring and fall. Also, it’s a good thing to see if any other preventative maintenance can be done, and because we are too close to the source (our pets) it’s always a good thing for a 2nd party to periodically check out for items that we may not notice over time.

PLEASE NOTE: Later this weekend I will be posting a 3-Part article about Heartworm disease .. about its description, prevention and treatment in both dogs and cats .. be sure not to miss it!

Every year we always ask if about possible treatments for Ticks … my wife is deathly afraid of ticks, and fortunately .. because of Ticks .. my manlihood gives me a permanent respect in this household. You see, I grew up with Ticks .. had the beach, played in trees, lived out in the country … I am used to Ticks and pulling them out and killing them. When we were little, my brothers and I used to torture Ticks .. (yes, I know that sounds sick) .. but we used to take pins and stick them through Ticks and ‘nail them to a mini-cross’ or something like that.

I should mention, that if you do NOT know how to remove ticks, you may do a search here in [The Blog] to find articles such as … THIS ONE … OR THIS ONE .. etc etc. If you don’t know what a Tick is .. you can check out ThePetCenter about Ticks and read A LITTLE MORE about it.

There is a treatment called “Revolution” that is a liquid you put on the back of the dog’s neck, which is to prevent heartworm disease and Ticks. We tried one liquid a few years ago, but the dogs never liked it. Also ~after the fact~ we found out that it is quite poisonous to a cat who may occassionally likes to lick dogs (e.g. see pictures how Sophie gets Zeussie Pussy Cat to pamper her!) Also ..,. it’s the difference of costing about $22.30 CDN for Maxxie for heartworm prevention and $16.30 CDN for Sophie .. or, something like $97.00 each for the fancy schmancy stuff!

Naturally, we chose the cheaper cost and for the tick removal .. it will be ..me!

Anyway .. back to our Annual Vet Exam ..

Two major observations came out of the annual exam:

* Maxxie needs a Medical Dental Diet

It’s hard to argue with this. Despite that we feed our dogs only healthy food, give him HEALTHY dental treats (Denta-Stix, Tartar Treats, and stuff like that) .. and despite that we practically feed him healthy vegetables all the time (carrots, red/green/orange/yellow peppers, asparagus, broccoli, and stuff like that) .. well .. Maxxie practically inhales everything up! He chews things really fast, if not at all. Not to mention .. Papillon dogs and similar dogs are the scavengers of this earth. When we go out for walks, it is not uncommon for Maxxie to find a dead bird, or other animal or even garbage! He’ll eat anything really, and even when he was young and we first had Zeussie Pussy Cat .. he would eat the poop!

Yup .. No surprise on that! What was a surprise .. was the DENTIST QUOTATION our vet gave use! ewww 🙁 We said we will wait a few months until we finish paying off the loan to finance this current annual Vet Physical Examination session .. hehe Well, for now we will be brushing his teeth at least once a weekend and seeing if that improves anything in the meantime.

* Sophie has light Luxating Patella

Luxating Patella? What’s that? OMG! Sophie! Are you okay!! Pooorr Baby-Gurrl ..

But, apparently, it’s just a light case, and not serious at all. As the vet described it to us .. occassionally, the knee joint just slips or pops out of place .. and Sophie might lift her leg and give it a shake to put it back into place before continuing. According to information on our resident Vet’s site .. ThePetCenter.com …

According to ThePetCenter.com – Orthopedic Problems In Dogs …

Luxating patellas commonly have hereditary influences that result in improperly formed joint surfaces and muscle and tendon tension angles. Dislocating (luxating) a patella from the groove in the front of the knee always creates discomfort and predisposes the joint to repeat episodes of dislocation and arthritis. Looseness of the patella often can be demonstrated in young dogs, well before they show signs of trouble. A chronic luxating patella will need surgical intervention to keep the dog active and vigorous.

So now .. in the meantime, we are watching Sophie shake her left hindleg more (that’s the only affected) and trying to get Maxxie to slow down and BREATHE and CHEW when he eats our healthy treats we give him! And, this weekend will be the first time we ever brushed his teeth in over 8 years. I suppose it’s a good sign that, it’s only a moderate case of dental issues that affects him.

And for Sophie? Well … I threw out her stinky old ‘squeeky football toy’ and bought her a new ‘squeeky football toy’ 🙂