This summer, I said goodbye to my 14-year-old yellow Labrador, Abby. As many of you may know if you’ve been following along on my blog, Abby was a big part of what I wrote about. From her allergies to her lipomas and a few other things sprinkled in, Abby’s health issues and my treatments for them have been a common theme.
Most people probably never think twice about getting a prescription from their vet and administering it to their cat or dog. While I do, I’m still susceptible to learning lessons that I feel are important and want to pass along to help others. My most recent experience with a couple of my dogs serves as a valuable lesson about asking lots of questions before the prescription is written and why I recommend small prescription amounts so you don’t end up with a large private pharmacy collection of expensive, unreturnable medication.
As I read my local newspaper’s abbreviated free version that comes out every week, I’m always drawn to the classifieds. I read in amazement and sadness, the number of people advertising puppies, varying from golden retrievers to chiweiniepoos or whatever combination of breeds someone has come up with that they can apparently sell for hundreds of dollars. Around the holidays, they make sure they include how they’ll be ready for Christmas. I cringe at those ads for several reasons, not just because they are directly across from ads that the only local no-kill shelter runs begging for monetary help with vet bills from the latest sick dogs brought in that someone found dumped or with the vet care of a kitten thrown out of a car window. I cringe because I once got a puppy as a gift, and while my situation is different than most, there are still some things I want to pass on about my experience to help others. Read more
Abby, my labrador, has had environmental allergies to some extent, since she was around two years old, when she developed her first hot spot on her chest. Yesterday, she turned nine. Luckily, for most of those years, she’d been doing well on these supplements http://amzn.to/2oabvd7 and this shampoo http://amzn.to/2oQ9PEc. Every year, around June, she’d go on the supplements and get her medicated baths about once a month until August or September, when the offending allergen had subsided. We were then good until the next summer. That was our schedule.
Two months ago, Abby, my yellow lab, underwent lipoma surgery. The mass the vet removed was 12 lbs. and was encapsulated, but it had been hit and bruised, so when they performed the surgery, Abby bled heavily, causing her to have a pretty tense surgery and long recovery.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.