Thursday, I took Skelly to the vet for a checkup. I was going to take him right after lunch, but through better of it. I decided to take him and sophie for a walk first in hopes of calming him down.
I had been getting better at remembering to bring dog poo bags with me on walks. Of course, this time I forgot, and of course, this time Skelly dropped a stinker right on the sidewalk!!
After a quick walk, we loaded up the car and headed to the doc's office. Skelly didn't hesitate to say "hi" at the top of his lungs to every dog, cat and person that came near us. I didn't even bother trying to sit in the actual waiting room this time. Skelly and I just went out front to wait instead. (it was nice and sunny out there!)
I'd say that there was about a 70/30 split in favor of those who were NOT scared and/or horrified by Skelly's appearance and mannerisms. Not too bad. He's far from menacing, but some people just see a pit bull and judge based on stereotypes.
At any rate, the skeleton dog weighed in at a whopping 57.8 lbs! As we waited for the doc to arrive, Skelly was yelling at anybody he saw pass by the window. Some of the nice vet techs came in to say hi. Skells was quite thrilled about this!
Everybody was super stoked about his weight gain. They commented about how much he looked like a totally different dog! While we waited, I let Skeletor earn some yummy dog biscuits. He was sitting, shaking hands and even staying like a champ. Of course this was when we were alone in the room. If anybody else is around, he's way to excited to be bothered with silly dog tricks!
Dr. Fish arrived and was very pleased (I think he actually cheered a little) when he saw how much Skelly was up to! He listened to Skelly's heart and lungs and said that everything sounded good. They took Skeletor off to draw some blood.
A while later, Dr. Fish returned with some more good news. Skeletor's red blood cell count was up to 40%, which is within the normal range! Now that his white and red cells are where they need to be, we're going to continue weening him off of the Prednisone.
After Dr. Fish is satisfied that he can maintain a normal cell count with no drugs, Skeletor will be ready for the next step in his treatment. That step will most likely begin with another dose of the heartworm preventative. This time, they are going to administer it at the vet's office, just in case he has another nasty reaction.
Dr. Fish said that
theoretically, if he has a reaction next time, it
should be less severe. However, we just won't know until we get to that stage.
I got a good bit of video footage at the vet. I'll try and throw something together this weekend. I know I am way behind on videos, but there's no time man!!! :)
