WEDNESDAY, March 12, 2008, continued - Page 2

Anthony and Lady-dog go to the vet clinic, continued

   Anthony

     First I took in Anthony, who was very, very nervous as always, poor guy. He would just stand by my side, and he tried to jump on my lap, attempting to get away from the vet. I talked with Dr. Terry about Sir. Anthony so she would remember all that has been going on with him. Dr. Terry remembered him well and checked the big old fellow all over.

     Next she went to get the razor to shave the hair all around the sores on his leg and tail first. Dr. Terry said that those sores were only hot spots that we could treat with Genesis spray, which we already had for Misty's sores (which have now all healed up).

     Next the doctor tried to shave the hair around the sore on the back of his head also, but this hair was way too matted and stuck to the dried blood all around the sore. After checking the sore very carefully the doctor said she would like to go ahead and remove what was left of the cyst, and although it looked benign at my suggestion she would send it off to the lab to be sure. The doctor didn't think it was cancer, because, she said, if the cancer he had in his jaw bone were to recur, it wouldn't show up on his skin, but most likely in his lungs. I asked if they could get an x-ray of his lungs and do blood work, and the doctor said yes they would do that. She wanted me to leave Anthony at the clinic with them because today they probably wouldn't get to him since Dr. Terry was the only vet at the clinic today, but tomorrow they would have a full crew, including Dr. Morton. So I left Anthony in the doctor's hands, and as I left, I told Anthony that I would be back to get him tomorrow, and not to worry too much. I don't know if Anthony understood me, though. I'm just so worried about him.

   Lady-dog

     Next I brought in Lady-dog, and Dr. Terry first said that she really didn't know exactly what she would be looking for in the x-rays because she had never seen what the TPLO is supposed to look like, but she took two x-rays and said that she would e-mail them to Dr. McDonald.

     Meanwhile we are to keep Lady on a leash until we hear from Dr. McDonald. Dr. Terry didn't want to tell us the wrong thing, she said. It looked like the bones were healed, but she wasn't sure if the plate and screws were as they should be. I said we would continue walking Lady on a leash for now and we would call Dr. McDonald if he didn't call us first. Lady-dog seems normal. She puts pressure on her healing back leg, and she doesn't limp anymore or show any signs of pain, so I'm pretty sure she is okay.

   Vet-prescribed dog food

     Before leaving the clinic I got several bags of E/N dry dog food, a vet-prescribed food for dogs with digestive problems, which several of our doggies are eating per Dr. Terry and Dr. Morton's instructions, and I also picked up the most important meds that we really need to keep us going for the next several days. We have been trying to get only exactly what we need for our doggies since we still owe a lot of money to our vet--still almost $6,000. Really our account has gone down quite a lot, over $4,000 in the last few weeks--thanks to so many of you,  but we still owe the vets a lot. Unfortunately we can't get this important prescribed food just anywhere. I asked the vet tech if we could get this food at Petsmart or Canine Commissary, but they said no, it can be purchased only through a vet. (I later googled Purina EN, and there are places to purchase it on line, but it's about $20 more per 35-pound bag after our 25% discount from Morton Clinic.)