Rosie and Pa Rock Go to the Vet

 

by Pa Rock

Chihuahua Parent

My little dog, Rosie, and I went to the vet this morning for a follow-up visit as we try to figure out what is going on with her eyes.  Rosie will be eight-years-old in July, and other than the current situation with her eyes, she is a healthy little spitfire who enjoys dividing her time between running free on the farm and sleeping.   She has a pretty great life.

Rosie does not like going to the vet, and she began shaking as soon as we pulled onto his parking lot.  (She heard a couple of dogs and a goat in the outdoor kennel and knew immediately where we were.)

Once inside of the vet's waiting room we were joined by two other dogs and their humans.  Both dogs were about a year-old, and both were named after mythological super-beings.  Freya (a female German Shepard and Border Collie cross who was named after the Norse god Thor's mother) and Apollo (a Doberman who was named after the son of Zeus, the Greek god of the sky.). Of the three, Rosie was the best behaved - she just sat on my lap and shivered the entire time until we were called back to the exam room.

(Freya's human had seen the Netflix series "Ragnarok" which deals with a reincarnation of Thor as a modern youth, and she and I had a brief discussion about that.)

Another interesting experience that we had at the vet's was finding a doggie magazine with an article on how to teach a dog to ride a skateboard.  Rosie was not interested in that at all!

Rosie's eyes started clouding over a year or so ago.  As it started becoming noticeable, dog experts (and everyone in this part of the country is a dog expert) began diagnosing her as having cataracts and suggested that there was little that could be done to change the situation.  Then we went to the her lifetime vet, a young man whom I trust implicitly, and he assured me that it was not cataracts and appeared to be some sort of a viral infection.  She got a shot and some special eye cream.  The vet also did a blood screen which was inconclusive.

After ninety days or so of no obvious improvement - but no obvious worsening of the situation either - we returned for a follow-up.  At that point the vet adjourned to his office to do some "special" reading. When he came back to the exam room he said that he was going to put her on a special diet for thirty days and then do a thyroid screen.

We did the follow-up to that visit today.  Rosie, who had weighed 10.7 pounds thirty days ago, now weighs 10.1 pounds - a significant drop of six-tenths of a pound.  The thyroid screen came back normal.  I am keeping her on the diet dog food (which is very expensive and which she does not like) and will check-in for another follow-up in forty-five days.

Rosie's eyes are a concern, and just looking at her leaves one with the impression that she is either blind or heading that way.  But the vet said that she is getting "plenty" of light through her eyes.  And when Rosie is outside, she can spot a squirrel on the far edge of her very big yard  - and take off after the offending rodent at full speed.   She shows no signs outdoors or indoors of being vision impaired other than having those very noticeable cloudy eyes.

Even calculating for dog years, Rosie is still almost two decades younger than me, and she is far too young for serious medical issues.

And so am I.