Vet Day For Wazzu

Today was a big day for us as we had an appointment for Wazzu to see the leading Valley Fever specialist in the country. Wazzu knew something was up right away as she had to fast - which meant no breakfast for her. I took her out on a walk while the others had breakfast but she's no dummy and she figured out very quickly that she had missed a meal! And she wasn't very happy about it as her appointment wasn't until 2:00 in the afternoon.

We had planned to leave the two youngsters in the RV but wouldn't you know the wind was blowing the RV around so much we felt as though we were on a boat in the middle of the ocean. Slugger was very scared - and rightly so. So we took them along in the car with us. It turns out it was a good thing we did as we ended up being gone over seven hours.

When we arrived it looked like a very hospitable place. There was a "doggy" outside to meet us.



And a very nice looking building.



There was another "doggy" in the waiting room there to greet us as well.



The people there were super nice too....although I didn't take their pictures. As yo enter the building there is a scale just to your right. Wazzu loves to get on the scale so she immediately went and did a most pretty sit on the scale without even being asked.

After a very short wait they called for Wazzu to go back. Even though it wasn't in a direct line to the back Wazzu once again made a beeline for the scale and did another very pretty sit. Unfortunately for her we weren't quite done as she had hoped.

When we first got into the examining room Wazzu noticed two chairs and immediately went under the chairs to hide.....you know people can't see under chairs - or so she always hopes.

When the vet came in we talked for quite some time. Wazzu was thinking maybe this wasn't such a bad place after all. But wouldn't you know it the time came when they actually needed to see Wazzu. She thought she might luck out and not get noticed - but no such luck.

They took her in the back for an x-ray, a blood draw, and a urinalysis. During this time we were still having a great discussion with the vet. We learned so much about Wazzu's condition in particular but also about the disease in general. This really was very helpful and we feel much more informed and better able to help and monitor Wazzu.

In addition, we were told that Wazzu has arthritis in both elbows and some soft tissue trouble in her right shoulder. So Wazzu was given an injection that she needs to have once a week to hopefully help ease the pain.

We ended up having a three hour consultation. Mike and I thought it was great - Wazzu on the other hand wasn't nearly as thrilled. She was hungry! Overall, Wazzu got a good report. She still has the disease and there are still nodules in her lungs and around her heart but she is definitely going in the right direction. We'll have the test results back sometime next week and we'll have a better picture of how she is doing for sure.

On the way home we noticed there was a really pretty sunset. Unfortunately by the time I got the camera out we had lost our nice clear view. The picture isn't good at all but it will give you a small idea of how brilliant the colors were.



Time to get little Wazzu puppy some food!

Debbie
3/21/07