Post by Lannie on May 14, 2024 6:41:50 GMT -5
We finally got Missy up to see the vet, but to my sorrow and ultimate sadness, we were told our good vet, Dr. Lisa, passed away last year. There's no point in us driving up there all that way in the future, so we won't be going there anymore. But the young vet, Dr. Jenna, was OK. She listened to my whole long story about Missy's symptoms and what I'd been doing and how her condition had been changing over the last few days, then she felt all around Missy's leg and decided she thought 99.9% it was a snake bite. Maybe a rattlesnake, judging by how big Missy's leg got, but it could also have been a bull snake. Their bites cause bad infections, too, I'm hearing. And there are a lot of bull snakes out and about right now, according to my neighbor. So that might have been it. The only way we could have known more would have been to sedate Missy, flip her on her back, and shave the inside of her leg, looking for bite marks, but Dr. Jenna was sure enough it was snakebite that we didn't have to go through all that.
Anyway, she gave us some "chewable" broad spectrum antibiotic to finish out the week (which is a laugh, Missy will not eat them, even hidden in food) and 10 days worth of carprofen for the inflammation and pain. Although she's MUCH better now than she was even on Sunday, and I think she'll be back to normal in no time. Of course, I'll finish out the meds, if I can get those antibiotics in her. The carprofen is smaller, and not a problem, but these big horse pills ARE a problem. Since they're chewable, I assume I can crush them, so maybe I'll do that and mix them in a scrambled egg for her. She loves scrambled eggs, so maybe she'd scarf that down without noticing there's a pill in there. (?) Or not. We'll have to see.
I don't really want to go back to sticking her with penicillin twice a day, but I will if I have to, and then I guess these horse pills can go in the med cupboard for another use. I'm not throwing them out, they're brand-name something and they cost $40! They were trying to sell me Rimadyl as well, but I complained and said I wanted generic carprofen instead. The tech said, "But they're the same thing." And I said, "EXACTLY. But the carprofen is less than half the cost of the brand name." So she went and got carprofen. I figured I wouldn't make a fuss over the antibiotics because I wasn't SURE they were brand name, but "Rilexene" sounds like a brand name to me. Yup, I just looked it up, it's cephalexin. Anyway, the advertising says 90% of dogs will eat them voluntarily. I have one of the 10% that absolutely won't. Gah.
Anyway, she gave us some "chewable" broad spectrum antibiotic to finish out the week (which is a laugh, Missy will not eat them, even hidden in food) and 10 days worth of carprofen for the inflammation and pain. Although she's MUCH better now than she was even on Sunday, and I think she'll be back to normal in no time. Of course, I'll finish out the meds, if I can get those antibiotics in her. The carprofen is smaller, and not a problem, but these big horse pills ARE a problem. Since they're chewable, I assume I can crush them, so maybe I'll do that and mix them in a scrambled egg for her. She loves scrambled eggs, so maybe she'd scarf that down without noticing there's a pill in there. (?) Or not. We'll have to see.
I don't really want to go back to sticking her with penicillin twice a day, but I will if I have to, and then I guess these horse pills can go in the med cupboard for another use. I'm not throwing them out, they're brand-name something and they cost $40! They were trying to sell me Rimadyl as well, but I complained and said I wanted generic carprofen instead. The tech said, "But they're the same thing." And I said, "EXACTLY. But the carprofen is less than half the cost of the brand name." So she went and got carprofen. I figured I wouldn't make a fuss over the antibiotics because I wasn't SURE they were brand name, but "Rilexene" sounds like a brand name to me. Yup, I just looked it up, it's cephalexin. Anyway, the advertising says 90% of dogs will eat them voluntarily. I have one of the 10% that absolutely won't. Gah.