Dina's Vet Appointment - Written By Her Foster Mom

To read previous blogs on Dina click here.

Miss Dina wanted to look good for her first outing. She wore a 100% cotton dress/harness for her visit to Dr. Pam where everyone OOoohhhhhed and Aaahhhhhed over her.

She did much better than I expected. I picked her up in the house and held her while my husband drove and continued to hold her until I put her on the table for the vet to examine. She was nervous but didn't try to do any jumping around. My vet looked at her and decided NOT to take out her stitches. She said that for sutures that are holding together skin that was pulled together to cover an open area 2 to 3 weeks would be fine for stitch removal. That made me happy as I prefer to be cautious. We'll be back next Friday to have her stitches removed.

Dina needed a rabies shot as the staff in Chicago forgot to do that before she left. When assured that the only other vaccination was done April 10th at the shelter my vet was willing to give her the rabies vaccination. She's very good about NOT giving vaccinations to a sick or stressed dog....which is stated on every vial of vaccines.

I have permission to bathe Dina with Malaseb and scrub her (other than her owies) with the Zoom Groom to get the crud off her skin. My fingers couldn't resist pulling stray hairs off the tips of her ears in the car and when the little clumps of hairs came off so easily with dark gunk at the roots it was obvious that the beautiful darkness of her ears is at least partially yeast. So she's to get Listerine gold wiped on her ears twice daily.

Dina is 19 lbs. and has bilateral luxating patellas so Dr. Pam told me to continue to feed her lightly so she doesn't gain weight. We both feel it would not hurt her to loose a pound or two. Maybe in the next week we'll try a short walk to the park to start exercising her body and getting her muscles and ligaments built up to give strength to her knees.

This is more than you probably wanted to know....but I'm glad for the way things went today. I think it's about time to start holding her every day for a few minutes. She's doing a great job of being part of the pack here, but with her skin problems she's going to have to get used to being touched and held.