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Vet's visit
Oct. 15th, 2008 10:12 amYesterday we took Dahlia back to the vet. I mentioned in a previous post that she's been losing some of the hair by her nose. You can see it in this pic:
It started off as one little spot -- just a missing patch of hair. The skin was pale, not red, not scaly...just looked normal but without hair. We thought maybe she got bit by something and had scratched and took away some of the hair. But then a second spot appeared below it and we started to worry that it was something else.
So yesterday it was off to the vet.
I'm very glad that she has NO issues with going into the vet's office. She traipsed right in like "ooo new place new smells new people!!" She was wagging her tail and couldn't wait to get in the door. She settled down really well and a few people came out and oo'ed and ahh'ed over the pretty dog. We went in and she got weighed. 55.4 lbs. Just one tenth less than the last time. I guess she's supposed to weigh that much as she doesn't look heavy at all. She's getting plenty of exercise and not too much food, so I guess she's ok. 50lbs must have been a little bit too light for her. I sometimes still worry that she's too heavy, but she looks good. I thought she had actually lost some weight as she looks thinner than before, but I guess not!
At any rate, the vet came in. She was a really nice woman. She came over and examined her nose and then had us turn off the light. She waved a blue light (apparently called a Woods light) over her nose and discovered that she had some signs of fungal infection. After that, she took a few sample hairs (which meant using tweezers to pluck out hairs). David and I sort of held Dahlia, petted her, while the vet quickly grabbed her muzzle and plucked out a group of hairs. Dahlia did SO WELL. She just flinched a little but, didn't help, didn't panic. She was back to her smiling self and still trusting the vet, especially since she offered her a treat. They apparently received whole slews of heartworm med treats without the heartworm in it (they're sample treats to see if the dog will eat them). Of course, she scarfed it down without even batting an eyelash.
The vet commented on what a good dog she was and came over to just pet her at one point. She said she was really relaxed, did really well, and she was impressed at how gently she took the treat from her hand. Our Dahlia is a good girl she is!
So now we wait a couple weeks to see what the culture says. In the mean time, she gave us the treatment, which is an antifungal lotion we apply once a day. She said if the culture doesn't grow, two weeks ought to be enough. If it does, we'll have to do it for about four weeks all together. Either way I'm glad to have some treatment for this. I hope the hair starts growing back soon.
It started off as one little spot -- just a missing patch of hair. The skin was pale, not red, not scaly...just looked normal but without hair. We thought maybe she got bit by something and had scratched and took away some of the hair. But then a second spot appeared below it and we started to worry that it was something else.
So yesterday it was off to the vet.
I'm very glad that she has NO issues with going into the vet's office. She traipsed right in like "ooo new place new smells new people!!" She was wagging her tail and couldn't wait to get in the door. She settled down really well and a few people came out and oo'ed and ahh'ed over the pretty dog. We went in and she got weighed. 55.4 lbs. Just one tenth less than the last time. I guess she's supposed to weigh that much as she doesn't look heavy at all. She's getting plenty of exercise and not too much food, so I guess she's ok. 50lbs must have been a little bit too light for her. I sometimes still worry that she's too heavy, but she looks good. I thought she had actually lost some weight as she looks thinner than before, but I guess not!
At any rate, the vet came in. She was a really nice woman. She came over and examined her nose and then had us turn off the light. She waved a blue light (apparently called a Woods light) over her nose and discovered that she had some signs of fungal infection. After that, she took a few sample hairs (which meant using tweezers to pluck out hairs). David and I sort of held Dahlia, petted her, while the vet quickly grabbed her muzzle and plucked out a group of hairs. Dahlia did SO WELL. She just flinched a little but, didn't help, didn't panic. She was back to her smiling self and still trusting the vet, especially since she offered her a treat. They apparently received whole slews of heartworm med treats without the heartworm in it (they're sample treats to see if the dog will eat them). Of course, she scarfed it down without even batting an eyelash.
The vet commented on what a good dog she was and came over to just pet her at one point. She said she was really relaxed, did really well, and she was impressed at how gently she took the treat from her hand. Our Dahlia is a good girl she is!
So now we wait a couple weeks to see what the culture says. In the mean time, she gave us the treatment, which is an antifungal lotion we apply once a day. She said if the culture doesn't grow, two weeks ought to be enough. If it does, we'll have to do it for about four weeks all together. Either way I'm glad to have some treatment for this. I hope the hair starts growing back soon.