It’s a rare day when Shayne and Rio spend an evening sleeping on the couch–after hours of hiking, hours of swimming, a busy day at a disc competition or a day at a busy social event, but today was one of those days. An hour at the vet office today and Shayne has bee content to sleep most of the day away. The sad part is I know she’s sleeping the day away because the vet is still such a stressful place for her.

A few months after I got Shayne I had to take her back to the shelter’s vet clinic for a vaccine that she was supposed to have been given but wasn’t. Since it was their mistake, they said I could bring her by during their ‘lunch’ hour. Long story short, two somewhat crabby vet techs brought us back into the exam room where they proceeded to ignore me when I said she was fearful and they pretty much cornered her in the room. I was pretty much frozen because I was so shocked and appalled at what I was witnessing. My timid and fearful dog was cornered by two people who were kneeling on the ground and just enveloping her… and theshe panicked.

This was the moment I learned that it would take an extraordinary measure to make her bite in a very fearful situation–instead of ripping their faces off, she released her anal glads, urinated and released her bowels. I regret to this day letting that 30 seconds of terror happen to her (who would have thought two vet techs could be so insensitive and so careless, if she had been any other fearful [or not] dog she could have easily bitten). I did not advocate for her and the remaining issues we have with the vet today are certainly a result of this moment.

When I lived in NY I had the perfect vet for her, the office was just 5 blocks away and so we regularly visited on our walks, it was a tiny office and we rarely had to deal with other dogs, and the vet there was FANTASTIC for Shayne. He didn’t try to make friends (after I told him she was fearful), just went about his business with her. He was kind and gentle but didn’t look into her eyes and coo trying to soothe her (the baby talk makes her so much more concerned). She actually got quite good at this vet office and didn’t LIKE the vet himself but seemed to appreciate the fact that he got her in and out and ignored her as much as he could.

The vet we have here is much further away and fun drop-in visits are not practical. I really value the staff at the office and the vets go with what I want to do (in terms of diet and vaccines which we disagree on), and are quite reliable with their internal medicine information, skills, and specialities. So overal I like my vet here and they’ve always been accommodating (even if there isn’t a vet who Shayne seems to ‘like’ as much as the vet in NY).

Anyhow, our visit yesterday was relatively uneventful. Shayne stayed sub threshold almost the entire visit, she took treats during her entire exam (which hasn’t always been the case and is a big victory). When she wasn’t the focus of the exam she was responding to basic cues without issue and even maintaining a pretty nice down-stay. Our appointment was the first of the morning so no other critters in the office at all and no waiting in the entry room. The vet said Shayne and Rio looked in fantastic condition, Monty has some gingivitis starting but she loved him, and the really good news is that Panther likely has a UTI so we are treating for that and HOPING that is the only thing at play right now.

Since Shayne is almost 7 years old (terrifying thought, but more on this in a moment), I figured now was the perfect time to get a baseline blood workup. So if a few years down the road she’s having issues, we can compare her blood work then to a time we know she was healthy. I trust this staff well enough to take her in the back to draw blood (a new protocol they have adopted–I don’t love it…but do trust the staff). She was only in the back for about 45 seconds between being walked out of the room and coming back in so she must have been pretty cooperative–though she did express her anal glands while back there. I actually asked if she was finished because it was so fast and I figured it’d take them a little while! But they said she was a good girl and other than the anal glands she let them do their job easily.

As Shayne gets closer and closer to turning the big 7, I get more and more worried, in a very irrational way. My heart dog Tazzie passed away suddenly just a little bit before she turned 7 and I am scared I’ll lose Shayne that young. Tazzie was fine on a Monday and was put to sleep on a Thursday because none of the 3 amazing vets at the office were able to tap her chest to allow her to breath so they could buy some time to run tests. This was such a dramatic loss for me and the closer Shayne gets to 7 the more I’m scared I’ll suddenly lose her. I was actually a bit scared to have her blood panel run for fear of finding some horrible issue (out of sight out of mind). Her blood work came back mostly normal. There was a really strange result for her white blood count so they are sending out to have it rechecked at a lab but the vet doesn’t seem at all concerned. RATIONALLY I’m not worried at all either–all other levels looked great, she’s in great physical condition, and has no strange symptoms of anything. IRRATIONALLY I’m so scared she has some sort of issue causing the strange WBC and that she’ll be like Tazzie and leave this earth WAY before her time.

So overal it was a pretty good visit and although stressful, Shayne was much LESS stressed than she has been historically and we got some great news about Panther and some mostly great news on Shayne’s CBC.