Man, having puppies is HARD! Well okay...taking them to the vet is hard. The rest is juuuuuuuuuust fine!
We took Leo and Suki to their new vet for the very first time last night. Aye. Turns out, there was more stuff out-of-date or wrong that I could have possibly anticipated. But the good news is that we're awesome owners and the vet, Dr. Shannon, thinks they're adorable (duh) and that at first glance, they're in pretty top physical condition. Probably comes from walking them twice a day and NOT feeding them table scraps or double-cheeseburgers. Just the puppy food and some occasional treats for the weirdos now! (They got to eat all kinds of crap before they came to live with us...uh-uh. Not anymore. They're dogs...not humans. I digress).
Turns out that Leo needed a new rabies shot, a new distemper shot and a new bordatella shot (which he did NOT enjoy except that he got more treats during those shots than he's gotten in the entire time we've owned him haha!) and had to have his blood drawn so tests could be run to make sure he doesn't have anything internally wrong with him (which I'm pretty sure he doesn't). And his teeth are pretty goobery so we have to get toothbrush and toothpaste this weekend.
Suki is a completely different story. I just want to cuddle her and hold her and protect her from all things bad now. She's got really bad teeth that require more work that just brushing could do. She has at least 4 cracked teeth (which the doc thinks should be fine) and one that's bad enough that the doc is recommending that we bring her in in about six months to do a deep cleaning and to extract that tooth. That means Suki has to go under general anesthesia and has to stay at the vet for at least a day to recover and stay under close watch. Poor baby! She also has a weird sounding heartbeat that is probably nothing, but she had to have an EKG to double check. Her right read knee also pops out of joint pretty much every time she moves, which makes me feel really bad for making her "sit" all the time. But apparently that happens to lots of dogs and doesn't typically affect them so I'm not too worried. Suki loves to run and jump and she doesn't favor her knee so I'm sure she's fine in that regard. She had to have only one shot so that was good. She just kind of stood there the whole time and took it. She's such a good puppy!
Leo was a whiny brat the whole time, shockingly. It's a good thing he's cute!
Oh and they both needed to start heartworm meds back in June so we got them going on that last night...it's a June - November medication they have to take, which is in the form of a treat so the 1st of the month is going to be fun times for the pups! haha!
So what was supposed to be a $125 doctor visit turned quickly into $350 and will cost another $700 in six months when Suki has to get her teeth cleaned. Oof. I'd love to say "This isn't what I signed up for!" but it is...they're our little punkins and we love them so we take care of them and going to the vet is one of those things. We like our vet and they seemed to take kindly to her so we'll keep going.
I just hope Leo and Suki aren't mad at us for the worst car ride EVER!
you think puppies are bad - just wait until you have kids......
ReplyDeleteavery's ear surgery for her tubes was just over $1,000 and that was us paying the 20% that the insurance didn't cover....
sheesh.....yeah enjoy it now....it only gets worse with kids. i think the hospital bill (not the one we paid but the total) when i had avery was near $7,000......just to get that little buger out safe & sound....sheesh.
like i said. it only gets worse. glad the pups are well taken care of now though! that's got to make you feel good....
oh and a c-section is like twice that amount.....
ReplyDeletewith the insurance that i have right now, it would be kind of awesome to have a kid! i have to meet a $2000 deductible and once that's met, everything else from there on out is FREE FREE FREE. and with the CTScan and other misc tests i had to have run a couple months ago to make sure my brain was imploding cost us nearly that much so i should hurry up and get knocked up! oh wait. no. that's not true. no kids for a long long while...
ReplyDeleteaw, you're good puppy parents. but, i hear it's true... when you're ready for dogs, you're ready for kids. :o)
ReplyDeleteoh, and the ribbon on PBR is because they won first place at the world's fair in chicago in 1893... they've kept the blue ribbon ever since. pretty sweet.