The Vet Today

The Vet Today was Originally Posted on October 22, 2009 by lavarock

After taking my dog Koa to Sandra’s, we piled 6 dogs into her SUV and headed north towards the vet to have their eyes certified. You must do this if you are to breed Labradors.

After a quick stop at COSTCO for gas we headed to Waimea (which is about 3000 feet above sea level, has over 7,000 people and is a big cattle and ranching area. About half way up the mountain the dogs woke up and started howling. I’m sure their ears were popping.

Since it is over an hours drive, we over planned and got there 45 minutes early. I had already eaten a double cheeseburger on the way to Sandras, but she was hungry, so we stopped at the Waimea McDonalds. The dogs were a bit rambuncious and we didn’t realize that we didn’t have our full meals until we stopped at the park nearby to eat. So it was back to the restaurant and through the drive thru again. We could not get out of the car because all 6 dogs would have pushed out to follow us.

You may be thinking “Why couldn’t they go to a closer vet?”. Well, the particular optical Vet only comes to this island twice a year and visits many Vets. You need to find one who has room for you because this traveling Vet only stays a few hours at each regular Vet office. Waimea was our only choice for 6 dogs and only 1 other person was scheduled for an eye exam.

While in the office, we heard a woman with a yellow Lab talking about her do having hot spots and allergies. She was feeding her dog kibble (that dried dog food in the bag). Sandra and I looked at each other because we know one of the main cures and it is real raw food (like hamburger, meat, chicken, etc). This woman has not read the literature and the Vets don’t appear to know any better. They prescribed antihistamines or the dog.

Sigh!

If you have a dog and it has itching and are feeding dry food, try switching to meat for a few days and see if the dog doesn’t have more energy and less fur falling out. I also give Koa some fish oil tablets (from COSTCO). He gets like 7000 mg (with is about 7 capsules) and actually will eat the capsules out of my hand. It would be better if I had tuna or something fresh, but at least the oil helps his coat tremendously too.

After the Vet we headed back home. Sandra wanted a milkshake so… back to the Waimea McDonalds drive-thru for the third time in 3 hours. That is some kind of record, at least for me.

By the way, Koa’s eyes checked just fine!

It looks like I’ll be up in town again tomorrow. I need to hand out more resumes. You can’t get unemployment checks unless you can procve that you are looking for work.