The Vet Visit

The visits to the vet are getting harder. We left and Vince said . . in 10 years Oscar will be 13 and we are not going to be able to handle him unless he calms down a whole lot.

I’ll start with the good news . . nine months ago when we were last there – for his annual visit – he weighed 21 pounds. The vet said that’s an ok weight but don’t let him gain more. Today, he was 17 pounds. That’s a huge improvement and the vet was happy . . briefly! 🙂

We have to put a muzzle on him before they can work on him. He was already not happy and the muzzle makes it worse. It took Vince, me and another tech to hold Oscar just so the vet could look in his ears! The vet kept saying “He is SO strong!” He is. You can see all his muscles. Somehow during the process of trying to keep him still, he ended up bleeding quite a bit. The vet said “I think he cut you. You’re bleeding!” There was blood on my hand. She handed me a Kleenex and then Oscar picked up his foot and there was a good sized spot of blood. It appears that in the process of trying to claw us, his right foot clawed between two of his toes on his left foot. She got it cleaned up, said he did not need a stitch, got his foot bandaged . . back to trying to look in his ears.

One ear has a “moderate” infection. The other is fine. We have a tube of medicated ointment to put in once next week. Thank goodness it’s better than the meds we used to have to use every other day for a week.

The bad news is he has to go back for a re-check in a couple of weeks.

She did say to give him half a tranquilizer the night before the visit. Then give him a whole one two hours before his visit. They’ve made a note to be ready for him. He has the first visit. They will take him right back and get right to him so he doesn’t have to wait. the longer he waits, the more agitated he gets. So, we go back in about two weeks, then we go back in April for the annual visit.