Vet Adventures and Beyond

Pan was great in the car, but he came up between the
two crates to join me in the front seat. 

Tuesday was our vet day. Pan went in for vaccines, fecal and heartworm tests.

Pan was good and he passed all the tests. I was really holding my breath on the heartworm test especially, but he was negative. Pan weighed in at a very chunky 96 pounds, at least 20 pounds more than he needs. He will be starting the same green bean diet plan I had Diesel on - half a can of green beans and one cup of dry food, twice a day.

Pan was happy and friendly, although he did object to the fecal test, but you can't really blame him for that. He proved the accuracy of his full given name, Panic, with his energy, enthusiasm, and jumpiness. He had been to a vet at least once in his past, to be neutered, but it was clear that he was not a regular visitor with any vet.

Pan needs exercise, a diet, and some basic manners training so he will sit more and jump less. But he's really a good boy.

Maya was also on Tuesday's vet run. She often comes along just as a passenger, but this time she was also a patient. She had done something to her right front leg or paw, maybe a week ago. I was still taking her on walks until a few days ago when I realized that it was still hurting her and wasn't going away on her own. It seemed to be on her right front foot and I bought some stuff to soak it in, but that proved to be difficult to do on my own. Plus, she wouldn't really let me examine it properly, even if I did know what I was looking for.

She had a cut on one of the pads that seemed to be the problem. They cleaned it up, treated it, and bandaged it, although no one expected the bandage to last very long, if it even made it home.

Maya won't be do any hiking for a little while. This needs to get healed up so she can.

I just noticed that the vet wrap they used
says "Spoiled." I can't imagine why.

Clay finally got a couple days off, so after I finished work we went to town, taking Serena along for some new social experience. We went to the downtown mall, the social experience equivalent of a non-swimmer jumping into the deep end of a pool. We tried to ease into it by stopping on a side street and letting her just observe all the people. Then we went onto the mall itself, but headed down to the "quiet" end towards the Pavilion. That seemed to help and her tail came out from between her legs. Then we walked the length of the mall, stopping occasionally when someone wanted to meet her. The first person shared a piece of her rueben sandwich which may have helped. There's a lot of outdoor restaurant seating on the mall, but we wanted a place where she'd feel as comfortable as possible. We settled on the Whiskey Jar at the far end, where we got a table up against the wall so she only had one direction to look.

She never sat down, but she had a couple french fries and they brought her a bowl of water with ice. After dinner we went to a brewery for another beer before heading home. Serena was good with being touched by strangers, but it was clear that we need to take her out and about a lot more so she'll be more comfortable. She loves our hikes, but that is a very different experience from going into town and out in a public place.

Serena at dinner. Although this dog will try
to eat anything that fits in her mouth, she is
not accustomed to human food so she was
really pretty good at dinner.

At the brewery, more people, more dogs.

When we got home, we found that Maya had left the bandage on her foot. Betting odds were against it, but Maya surprised us once again.