Andy's First Visit to the Vet School

One of many bland buildings at NCSU (note, not the vet school)

I went to the NCSU Vet School. The building had as much charm to it as an old Soviet style facility. Sometimes when I’m at State, I forget that it has a school of architecture when I see some of the buildings on campus. Andy and I went into an examination room with an escort by a vet tech. A few minutes later, a vet and a 3rd year vet student came into the room. He spoke of possible treatments for Andy. He said the first step would be a conservative treatment. We would administer medicines for Andy and have him stay in bed all day and rest all day. He said if that didn’t work, then he’d like to have an MRI done on Andy to see if surgery is possible. I left Andy with the vet for a couple of hours for them to administer some tests to him. I picked him up a few hours later.


When I came back, a vet student came out to speak to me. I forgot her name but she was a cutie. She handed me the medicines Andy had to take along with instructions for each one. I don’t remember them all but gabapentin was one of them. It was hoped it would treat Andy’s falling down. My dad was given the very same medicine because he too had been falling down. Gaba didn’t work well for my dad or Andy.

Before leaving, the vet student asked me “He [Andy] likes to kiss a lot, doesn’t he?” I smiled and nodded my head. Inside, I thought of one my nicknames for Andy: Kissybaby. Andy and I went home and started his regimen.

We kept him as calm as possible. We gave him his medicines. He was so sweet about everything. He was an easy patient to treat. He wasn’t fussy or stubborn. His tractability and sweetness made nursing him back to health less of a chore than what is was. His spirit was so strong. I couldn’t give up on him.

The conservative treatment did not work. He still staggered. I had to use the same force to keep him up with the Bottom’s Up leash after the treatment as compared to before. I think a week and a half later, we scheduled another appointment at the vet school. Andy was going to need surgery.