Veterinarians Love Me

I failed to mention yesterday that Libby and I went back to the vet Saturday. Actually this time it was a different one as our usual veterinarian was out out town.

Thursday morning she started acting weird again and was shaking her head a lot. I was worried but thought maybe she just had a hair stuck in her ear or something and if she was still doing it when I got home from work, I'd take her in on Friday.

Well, when I got home from work, she was still shaking her head, though not as often and when I checked her ears, one of them was full of gunk. Nasty oozing gunk. (Parenting puppies is almost as glamorous as parenting children!)  She's never had pristine ears but this was thick and nasty looking. Coupled with the shaking head I figured it couldn't be anything good.

So, called her vet and talked to one of the techs who informed me that the vet would be out from Friday until sometime next week but that I could come pick up some ear cleaning solution. Wasn't really feeling that response.

Anyway, I do what I always do and called Mama to get the "recipe" for ear cleaning solution that her former vet had given to her back when Nipper was a young stud. Naturally, she couldn't find it. Well, she found it but it was smudged. So I just mixed a tsp of peroxide with equal parts rubbing alcohol and water and cleaned as much of the gunk out as I could. Had to do this a few times throughout the night. It seemed for every cotton ball of gunk I cleaned, twice as much collected for the next.

Friday I decided I wasn't going to wait until "sometime next week" and chance that she might have an ear infection that could be harmful to her hearing or something. Plus, all that head shaking was making her anxious, I could tell. I called the vet where Mama takes Milo and explained the sitch and she offered to see Libs on Saturday.

Saturday (after multiple and continued cleaning) Libs wasn't shaking her head as much and the gunk was drastically reduced but I took her for her appointment anyway. This vet put a drop in each ear and then cleaned it really well to check for mites. (There were none, thank goodness!) She decided that Libs had allergies. She gave us a vial of ointment to rub in her ears every day for a week and said to come back if it didn't work.

Thankfully, the ointment seems to be working. The only time she shakes her head is while I'm applying the ointment and just after, probably because it tickles. And her ears look clean and healthy pink. Better than they've ever looked! So color me happy.

Meanwhile, I can't help but wonder if she didn't have some sort of allergic reaction to the antibiotic that her vet put her on last weekend. It was an amoxacillan blend and while I know humans can be allergic, I wonder if dogs can't be.  Mama is allergic to it and she gets itchy around her ears and head when she's exposed to it. Makes a worried puppy mama wonder, anyway.

Either way, I'm looking forward to getting my girl back to full health and back to normal. She's sick of me poking around in her ears and shoving pills down  her throat--which, thankfully, she's done with the pills.

And oddly enough, the first trip to the vet I noticed the age chart for dogs. With Libby's size and current age she's 36 in dog years! She's older than me! Heifer thinks she's the boss now. But then, wasn't she always?