when i took bentley to woburn vet hospital they were floored to find, he had no medical history- other than a checkup after we were both electrrucuted he had rabies shot. only. .. so then i looked up our other most active stud..( on our tree) thumper-- also no medical issues- and still making pups at 10( per the tree????).. bailey i think died at 13 as she just began to get too old to enjoy life... chaos at 12 is hanging in there-- happy to go for walks and eat cookies..... she has alot hanging off her that we were "advised to remove" but i worried more about the anesthesia than the fatty tumors hanging on her.-- she is a challange gettin g into amy's car for the ride-around and there are days when the fact that she has had 3 litters causes her plumbing to be distressed... it happens to alot of old ladies... we can cope... old age is not for the meek.
so why? i would be terribly overbearing to imply our older dogs are anything but bone headed luck.... heaven knows after over 450 births. we have had a few disasters... and there are those who want to revel in the dozen or so disasters rather than the 430 success stories.. so be it..
what i can share is. what i do as far as their physical exam...100 years ago.. when i bought ( --- as in actually paid money for...) my first dane... tiffany.. from the BMW kennel in long island..... . teh owner.. laura kiaulanas knew far more about danes than i ever would.... as witnessed by the fact that ... i saw... she kept 4 entire males in the same pen.. behind a 3 foot garden fence... plus teh fact that ... per the photo... she could get 5 huge danes in a small rowboat daily to go for exercise on an island....where if any moved they would all have been wet.... she advised me..."JUST FEED HER" and don't get into all the supplements they advertise...
my "just feed her" has been purina pro plan--- for alot longer than when they started to donate it... teh only diviation has been to get pro plan for overweight dogs for bentlye and chaos.. who get too many cookies anyway.
so my routine physical exam is simply... if they are eating, drinking peeing , pooping and running around enjoying life---- then let them....my "full" exam would include. lift the lip and see if it is pink.. and does not smell.. continue the sniff test to all other orifices.. and to be really complete. take the temp when you do the rear sniff.
any choice beyond that is playing the percentages.. nearly all the flea tick killers have some negative results includig death and seizures... but we as pet owners play that against having little bug crawl all over you for your entire life ... as fleas used to do in my childhood... fleas were normal. you picked them off --took hours.
there is a huge... but valid debate..do you want to know of any future problem you might have with your dog?
personally , having had enough dogs i realize -- so far i have outlived them - and accepting we are all "pre arthritic" has saved alot of useless angst ...now there are those who will say anything they want to about that .. personally giving a latin name to something that can not be cured will possibly upset the current enjoyment of life.. and i have see far too much of that. -- so that even owning a dog becomes "pre angst"
i totally believe in "second opinions" and have often sought them not only from another vet, but also from the people medical doctors i still have access to from my husbands career.
so i keep my eye on the negative 6%--- but not to the exclusion of the 94% of the rest...
