Doggy Allowances
November 22, 2006
The chihuahua saga [no, not the “Taco Bell” kind]: Part II
What was I thinking in letting this lapse? With two aging dogs, and years of experience in the veterinary field, I was obviously not thinking. Then again, I DO count their medical expenses as part of my personal medical expense allowance every month. Anyway…. I don’t have a picture on me, LeighAnn, but will definitely post some this weekend when I get home! He IS cute … and I’m not just biased 🙂
So the grumpy old fogey went to the doc and the abcess was mostly reduced already, thanks to my bumbling, but it’s minor in comparison to his Old Dog Syndrome. He’s on antibiotics now and some arterial dilators. His major problems are his teeth [I knew that] and his heart [I suspected that]. He’s extremely defensive about having his mouth touched, looked at or otherwise disturbed so brushing his teeth has never been an option.
Now, he’s developed a heart murmur, and will progress to congestive heart failure as time passes. [A heart murmur is basically when the heart has become enlarged and isn’t working properly. It has to work harder to pump the normal amount of blood, and the enlargement causes the heart to push on his lungs, and that’s what causes the cough.] We lost my first dog to heart disease a few years ago, so I was immediately suspicious of his occasional cough/hack/cough, but it wasn’t frequent or even regular and it usually happened when I woke wake him up so I couldn’t be sure that it wasn’t just my paranoia waving the diagnosis wand. He’s my baby, of course I’m going to worry and fuss!!
*sigh* He’s just a chronic doggy: chronic ear infections, chronic skin problems, now chronic cardiac disease.
So the damages were:
Exam: $40
X-rays: $125 — so the doc could be “impressed” that his heart wasn’t nearly as big as he would expect from this ancient chihuahua.
Meds: $23, $10, $18
= $216
Whoo! I’m not sure if years of ringing up bills for folks who paid over a thousand dollars for their beloved pets has inured me to the cost of pet health but it can be MUCH worse. [Or am I getting TOO comfortable with spending??] Of course, I did work for a corporation by the time I left so, unfortunately, the costs seemed exponentially higher …. this will teach me get serious about saving for dogglish emergencies!! It’s only going to get worse as they get older.
