I went to pick up Billy on Friday from the veterinary ophthalmologist in Burlington, Vermont. Billy's surgery on Thursday to remove his eyes had gone fine, but on Friday morning Dr. Sarah Hoy and her techs became a little concerned about how he was doing. He was more listless than they expected, even considering the post-op "blues" you normally would see. Walking seemed to tire him out, and his gums would get a little on the pale side after any exertion. Mindful that he was heartworm positive, which always puts a strain on the heart, Dr. Hoy wanted me to be aware of what they were seeing.
Of course, with Avery's tragic loss fresh in our minds and hearts, Dr. Hoy's report alarmed me. I knew we needed to get Billy's heart checked out as soon as we could. In an ideal world, we wouldn't have put him through surgery without treating his heartworm infection first, but that can take up to three or four months from start of treatment to the "all-clear" for surgery. Because he was in so much pain, this was a triage situation where we had to get his eyes taken care of first. This was the same predicament we were in with Avery, so the similarities were even more uncomfortable.
Sitting in the truck outside Dr. Hoy's clinic, I called our internal medicine specialist in Burlington, Dr. Bryan Harnett, at Burlington Emergency and Veterinary Specialists. I knew it was a long shot, but I thought that just in case he might have an opening, I wanted to get Billy in for an echocardiogram to check out his heart function. Dr. Harnett was off on Friday, but his new associate, Dr. Tanya Donovan, was available and graciously offered to look at Billy as soon as I could get him over there. Less than ten minutes later, I was sitting in front of their door.
Dr. Donovan is also an internal medicine specialist and just joined the clinic two weeks ago, which is why you haven't seen her in previous blog posts. In the photo above, she is listening to Billy's heart. Another view:
She took him into the back for his echocardiogram, and I sat nervously in the exam room, waiting to find out. It wasn't long before the door swung open and Dr. Donovan walked into the room carrying Billy. She smiled and said, "His heart is gorgeous." Whew! He did have a very small leak in his mitral valve, which is producing a mild murmur, but she found no evidence of "decompensation" or disease. In fact, she also didn't see any worms, which could mean either his heatworm test in Georgia was a false positive or he has a very low worm burden. So Dr. Donovan recommended retesting him for heartworms before treating him. His bloodwork was also normal. As she was telling me all this, Billy was zooming around the exam room floor, climbing up on Dr. Donovan and then me, and clearly regaining some Beagle spunk.
I also had little Wilbur in the truck with me — he needed to get some more bloodwork done at the opthalmologist's clinic — and since I'm never one to waste an opportunity, I asked Dr. Donovan if she had time that afternoon to do an abdominal scan and echo on Wilbur, too. He is going to have surgery in another week, and since we don't have any medical history on him, I figured it would be wise to get the wee-one checked out. Again, she was kind enough to fit him in, and off he went for his scan. I will post more on Wilbur next time, but Dr. Donovan said his organs looked great. Judging from some age-related changes in his gall bladder and adrenal glands, she figured he was closer to 10 years of age.
After she came back with Wilbur, Dr. Donovan had sat down on the floor to tell me her findings on him, and pretty soon both dogs were sitting in her lap. Wilbur had squeezed in under her right arm, and Billy had come in from the left and was leaning up against her chest, his nose on her shoulder. They clearly liked their new doctor. It was so cute and I was such a dud for not getting that photo!
With all the good news in hand, I put the two boys in the truck and headed back to New Hampshire.
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The new Shelter Challenge started Monday, January 9 and ends at midnight on March 18. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.
*** We are now LISTED UNDER OUR NEW NAME, ROLLING DOG FARM. State is still NH for New Hampshire. ***
Please remember, you can vote every day … consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.
We just won $1,000 as a weekly winner for Week 4 in this current contest, and thousands more in the previous contests. The Shelter Challenge really does bring in a lot of money for the animals here!
You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.
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