Re: [pyrnet] Pumpkin

["GW Gibbs" <gwgibbs@multipro.com>]

Hey Susan,

If your trips to your vet seem to be frequent head scratchers, then you
might want to look for another vet.   What you describe would irritate the
heck out of me!!!   Just because there is a DVM behind somebody's name does
not make them a GOOD vet.   For a few hundred dollars you should have gotten
more than a "he's just old" diagnosis.   Even if that is the case, the vet
should have offered suggestions as to how to at least improve on his
situation....not just say take him home and let him live out the rest of his
days.   Been there, done that.   The difference between a good diagnostician
and a bad one is like night and day.  I can't believe some of the things
that I was told and accepted as truth from a previous vet that took care of
my horses, dogs, and cats.  Now that I have found another vet who is really
good, I look back on the past experience and want to kick myself for buying
into the goofy explanations that I got for this and that.  I am an RN and
should have known better to more seriously question what I was being told,
but at the time, took the "well, he's the vet" attitude.   The bottom line
is, if you are not satisfied or have funny feelings about the answers  that
you are getting from your current vet...it may be time to find another one.
Good luck, PAM        P.S.   This advice applies to M.D.s as well!!!!

----- Original Message -----
From: Susan Christensen <sue@hoodel.com>
To: <pyrnet-l@pyrnet.org>
Sent: Monday, December 31, 2001 8:50 AM
Subject: [pyrnet] Pumpkin


> Thank you for that suggestion for the pumpkin. I'll have to try it!
> His problem with diarrhea isn't constant, just frequent. He has lost
> a sense of anal tone, I think, as he will defecate as he is walking.
> Poor boy (poor me).
>
> I don't know about you all, but so often my trips to the vet are head
> scratchers. They just don't seem to know what it wrong and have to
> make educated guesses on the problems. About a year and a half ago,
> he just flat out would not get up. He just lay there on the ground
> and if asked to support his weight, would just collapse and look at
> me. We carried him on a stretcher to the vets. He walked like and
> old, old dog when they got him to stand at all. He stayed at the vet,
> they did tests and I paid a few hundred. Basically, they thought he
> was getting old and I should just take him home to live out his
> remaining days. He walked heavily to the van and we hoisted him in.
> When he arrived at home, in the front yard, he lifted his head and
> took a few steps, a few more, a few more and I had not seen him even
> walk unassisted for a couple weeks like he was doing. I don't know-he
> suddenly got this sense that the winds had changed or something and
> began to recover his will to move and get around. Within a week, he
> was his old self.
>
> If I had to make an educated guess, I might think he had Lyme (we
> have had to deal with ticks in Texas and here in quantity despite
> collars) and this was an episode. Or he may have had a subluxation
> affecting his shoulder. He was on a medication for his aches,
> arthritic problems, inflammations (steroids) and that seemed to help,
> but that was to be short term. Does anyone have suggestions on food
> types or additives that can help degenerative problems (arthritis,
> etc)?
>
> Oh yes, we also had the nightmare bout between the 2 dogs (Jack and
> Siri) with mange. We have foxes come into our yard frequently, and
> apparently one picked it up from the fox and passed it to the other.
> Auuggghhhh. Luckily, thart was a couple years ago--no more mange.
>
> Sue and Siri-pup pup in Fairfax County, Virginia (former horse country)
>
>
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