Andy's Vet Visit

Andy went to the vet today for a regular check-up. He weighed 73.5lbs, so his weight is holding steady. However, this is a quite a drop in his prime when he was 82lbs of muscle. The muscle loss is most notable in his upper thighs where bones protrude a little.

We didn't have to wait in the lobby long. Just a couple of minutes after we checked in, a vet tech took us to the back. After weighing Andy, we took him to an examination room. The vet tech administered a fecal test exam which involves sticking a long slender plastic stick up Andy's butt. I don't know if the exam upset Andy or prodded things along, but Andy poo-pood right there in the exam room. The vet tech cleaned it up. When the vet came in, he asked we move to the adjacent exam room to get away from the odor.



The vet inspected Andy and administered a bordatella booster which was given by spraying some liquid in Andy's nose. The vet asked how Andy has been or if anything new has arisen. I told him Andy has been slightly constipated the last few days. The vet said it could be to changes in his diet and that we should keep an eye on what we are feeding him as a way to address that problem.



I told the vet about how nervous Andy gets, particularly at dusk and for a couple of hours afterwards. Andy pants heavily, acts fidgety and can't stay settled down. Since Andy was a nervous wreck in the exam room, I didn't have to explain the details of Andy's nervous behavior since Andy was demonstrating it. Normally, Andy isn't nervous like that in the middle of the day.



The vet said that with Andy's age that he may have Sundowner's Syndrome. My dad had that in the last months of his life so I was intimately aware of the matter. My dad would turn into a complete loopty-loo at night. Maybe with Andy's age, he was developing something similar.



The vet said that with Andy's age and breed, he may have hypothyroidism. He asked if he had ever been tested for that, and I said I didn't think so. Maybe we'll test for that in a later visit.



The vet gave us a one week prescription for Xanax. He didn't want to give us too much since he wanted to see how the drug would work before a long term commitment was made. I had to go to Walgreen's to fill the prescription. Normally, the vet hands us the drugs from his stash in the back, but these drugs were not available.

By the way, the fecal exam test was negative. We bought some pill pockets in beef and chicken flavor. Andy won't take pills hidden in regular 'people food' anymore so we've had to step up our efforts to get these pills into Andy. We checked out and left. The bill was $128.