The vet visit- good news/bad news

The vet visit- good news/bad news
Originally uploaded by donnyatx

I took the dogs to the vet today for their yearly vaccinations and check ups. This is a story of good news, bad news.

All of them gained about a pound since our last visits. Sophie went back first for a fecal exam and came back without any issues.They took Abby back and I thought Sophie was going bonkers wondering where her friend was. She paced and scratched at the door. She really loves Abby!

At one point we were talking about Sophie and how she wound up with us. I offered the story and also possible reasons someone might have dumped her in our yard (which, considering no one has claimed her for almost 3 months, leads me to believe that's very likely what happened.

First of all she is a yapper. She yaps at the wind. She yaps when Charley has something she wants. She hides toys she wants then goes after the other two for things she thinks she would like. And she doesn't stop barking until they give in. It can be very annoying for ALL of us within her range.

She is an escape artist. She will RUSH any door, gate, etc. Doesn't matter where it goes to, it's like a game to her. She did it at the vets and they started calling her Houdini. lol She's strange.

She also is not house trained. Not for lack of effort on my end. She's sneaky. She pees standing straight up at times, you would never know she's doing it. She also goes in cycles of being good, then being bad again. It's hard to keep up with her. It's also not limited to pee. I've stepped in poo before too. It's not fun. Luckily that seems to have stopped the last couple of weeks.

I was explaining all this to the vet. About the time I was telling her how sneaky Sophie is about the peeing, Sophie walked over to the corner of the tiled room and promptly peed all over the floor. RIGHT in front of us. But, she had the presence of mind to do it in the corner........ lol. The vet said that with small dogs like this it is common to have "potty training" issues and delays like this. My carpet isn't pleased, let me tell you. I did find the humor in her peeing right as we were talking about her bad behavior though. Gotta love her, LOL.

She did agree that Sophie seems to be just a year old. I'd guess she's about the same age as Abby or maybe a couple of months younger.

The bad news I got....

I adopted Charley from the Houston Poodle Rescue last summer and he tested negative for heartworms. I've had him on heartworm medicine monthly since we brought him home. I always had a little nagging in the back of my mind about him and heartworms but had dismissed it because of that negative result they got.

Today he tested positive and my other 2 were negative. It looks like he was in incubation stage when we adopted him, so the test showed a negative. Apparently there's up to a 6 month incubation phase before they will show up positive. Upon reading further I found that you need 5 adult female worms present in the heart to get a positive result.

He was found roaming the streets and was a matted, tangled mess. We also believe he was abused because of the extreme fear he had with men. So life was hard on this little guy until we got him. My best guess is he picked them up on the streets that spring or early summer before he was found.

The Vet told me today it was a very good thing he's been on the HW meds since we adopted him because it slows their life cycle down greatly and also reduces transmission to other dogs. If I understood her correctly they also kill the baby worms before they can become adults. I couldn't find anything on the internet about that however.

In 2 years she will recheck him for a positive or negative. Apparently the HW medicine will reduce the life of the worm to 2 years or less and he can be clear of HW's by then. So we are going that route. We are going with that because it's less stressful than the shots, and he's still a young dog. He isn't showing any of the usual signs of a heavy infection (his seems very light due to HW meds).

The shots might be an option if we get ancy, which I am waffling on. I hate the thought of him having those worms in his heart. I found myself giving him extra attention all afternoon because of that. He's such a little sweetheart, truly. He didn't ask for this :-(.

This picture was done with my cell phone. These two are always good there. They lay or sit by me until they want them. Sophie was all over the place once she calmed down, lol.