Her appointment today was at 9am. I was up early to walk Fritz around the 'hood at sunrise, then drove to Susan's place to pick her up. We drove in separate cars and arrived at the clinic at 8:57am. Sweetie weighed in at 55 pounds.
We were seen right away by DVM Etta Watts, the new owner of Jackson's Veterinary Services. She and her husband Jim bought the business last December from Dr Jackson. Jackson still works at the clinic to help out, she said. She is a petite slender woman who looks to be in her 40s, with thick dark brown shoulder-length hair.
Dr Watts impressed both Susan and me. She explained that Sweetie is suffering fr om advanced arthritis. She showed us on Sweetie's body where the pain is, and what the medications she prescribed for her do for her. Watts prescribed three medications: 300mg Gabapentin, 50mg Tramadol, 300mg Clindamycin, all three every 12 hours. I'm a little concerned about the Tramadol long-term as it's an opiate.
I went ahead and ordered a Senior Wellness Bundle, a complete blood panel that gets overnight shipped to a lab in Kansas. I want to rule any other diseases for Sweetie. If all she is suffering from is arthritis and her pain can be managed, she should live longer as long as she is otherwise healthy. Susan and I agree on this.
We were in the exam room for over an hour. I've never had a veterinarian spend so much time with me explaining the details. Even Susan was impressed. The bill for the exam, meds, and blood panel was $266.80.
We drove back to her place for breakfast. I couldn't stay long as I wanted to take Wolfie to Dr Geiger's walk-in vaccine clinic, only to discover the clinic now closes at 1pm instead of 2pm. It was 1:25pm when I stopped by. I then drove to CC's place to drop Wolfie off in the backyard with Fritz and Gretchen to get my hair cut in town. I hadn't had my hair cut since the start of school.
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