Monday, December 21, 2009

Getting Ready for a Trip

The animals (and ourselves) are getting ready to move to New Zealand.

Pet Condo

The amount of work to get them ready to go is amazing. The regulations for importing cats and dogs into New Zealand are very extensive and specific. When it's all said and done, this is by far the most expensive and stressful aspect of our move. Here's the rundown of their vet visits for the month before departure:


Visit 1: Within 30 days

Monday December 21st – both pets

*Blood draw for rabies titre

*Blood draw for leptospirosis, ehrlichiosis and brucellosis (brucellosis must be a serum agglutination) (ONLY TOBI)

*Two heartworm tests (antigen and microfilaria) (ONLY TOBI)

*First fecal test

(we recommend direction submission to Kansas State to expediate the results, attached please find the Kansas State submission form)

Visit 2: Within 10 days

Wednesday January 6th – both pets

*First worming with Praziquantel and Pyrantel

*Blood draw for Babesia (ONLY TOBI) (we recommend direct submission to Texas A&M to save time as Antech or Idexx will take an additional day or two to get to the sample to the testing lab)

Visit 3: Within 4 days

Thursday January 14th

*Flea/tick

*Worming with ivermectin (see Certificate A (attached) for other types of acceptable wormers)

*Second fecal test

*Second worming with Praziquantel and Pyrantel

*Exit Exam

*Sign off on Certificate A

Friday January 15th

Departure!


In addition, they require and import permit and a courier to ship them. Once they arrive, they'll be in quarantine for 30 days. One week to go, cross your fingers that it all works out as planned!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Tobi Update

Quick update on Tobi, I haven't posted in a little while. A month and a half or so ago, she started losing hair like crazy and her skin got really pink. After a lot of baths, we realized it was the flea shampoo that was irritating her. So we switched back to Trader Joes Tea Tree shampoo, and within days she was way better.
We also switched her food, mostly for selfish reasons involving $80 a bag, but she got really stinky. She's better now, so we think it might be something else she ate, but nonetheless we ordered another bag of her old food which we know is good for her. We'll mix them together for a while, and see how that goes.
And that's the update!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Tobi at the Creek

Tobi at the Creek from Morgan Loomis on Vimeo.

We took Tobi to the creek in downtown San Luis Obispo, and she decided to start a rock collection. She waded in and intently patroled until she saw an especially appealing stone, and then she would stick her whole head under the water to grab it, holding her breath for several seconds while blowing bubbles out of her nose. She carried each one triumphantly to a pile on the shore, and then returned for another. By the time we left she had about a dozen rocks in her collection, and at least as many adoring fans.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Mouth Surgury!

During a checkup a while ago, the vet found a growth on Tobi's gums. Once we were aware of it, we noticed that when she was playing she would accidently bite it and make it bleed, so we knew it had to go. So she went into surgury yesterday, and everything went good. The vet tech said it's the only dog she's seen who slept through an IV insertion. Snoring, no less. When we picked her up she was as spry and happy as ever, as if nothing had happened. Here's a suitably gross before and after picture of her gums:

Tobi

The growth is that strawberry looking thing in the center of the top picture. And below, it's totally gone! Tada!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Tobi's Pills

Tobi's daily pill regimen has gotten complicated enough that we got a little weekly pill case for her:
Tobi and her Pills

And here's a legacy of her old and current medications:
Tobi's Pill Legacy

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Tobi in Slow Motion

We got a fun new camera, and tested it out on Tobi:

Tobi Running Slow Motion from Morgan Loomis on Vimeo.


Tobi's Toy in Slow Motion from Morgan Loomis on Vimeo.

Dermatology Report

So tobi had a recheck with the dermatologist, and her little cyst wasn't going away as nicely as they'd hoped, despite the new antibiotics. Now, at this point, she's been on some sort of antibiotics almost non-stop for a long time. We've literally been giving her between one and 6 pills a day for over six months. So the doctor did a culture, and found out that Tobi has grown resistant to many types of antibiotics. For your reading pleasure, here's the printout:
Tobi Dermatology Report, Page 1
Tobi Dermatology Report, Page 2
Tobi Dermatology Report, Page 3
Oh, and also she still has staph. So they gave her a big bottle of people-sized doses of Clindamycin, which should hopefully fix that.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Inter-digital Cysts

So for a while, Tobi's had some little cysts between her toes. We've heard of that happening to bulldogs, and for the most part they seem to come and go and not bother her very much. But recently she had one that got big and didn't go away. We'd pop it every once in a while, but it would come back, it started bothering her. Here it is:

Cyst

So yesterday she had her follow-up appointment with the dermatologist, so the split them open and cleaned them out. The conclusion was that they could be from allergies, (weird) and that since she was already on antibiotics, and has been for so long, she's probably immune to them. So she got more pills, and a snazzy little bandage:

Tobi's bandage

She wasn't happy about the process, but she managed to get the bandage off today and that made her feel much better. 
The new pill regimen is as follows:
Ciprofloxacin: 2x daily
Ketoconozole: 2x daily
Medrol: 2x a day for 4 days, then 2x every other day for 4 days, then 1 1/2 every other day.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Bath Time!

Tobi is a stinky dog, and has to take baths often. They go something like this:
Tobi Bath

Tobi Bath

Tobi Bath

Drying Tobi

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Latest Appointments

Most recently Tobi had appointments with the optimologist and the dermatologist. Her skin is displaying symptoms of allergies, and we're thinking that might have something to do with the irritation of her eyes, too. The most common allergies in dogs are food allergies, so Tobi has some new food! It's fancy expensive vet food, even though it's made of only fish and potatoes! Go figure. In addition to that, she gets medicated shampoo, some special solutions for cleaning her ears and her folds, and more medication! Here's this month's lineup:

Tobi Skin Meds

Here's how the ear cleaning works, it's kind of fun: You soak a cotton ball in the cleanser, and then squish it down into her ears, and then let her shake them out, and it breaks up the earwax!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

New Meds!

Medication
So Tobi finally finished up about two months worth of antibiotics for her surgery and her eye, but then the other day she started having diarrhea. And some of it was a little bloody. Yikes. We took her to the vet, and lo and behold, prolonged antibiotics can cause stomach ulcers, which is what he thinks she has. More meds! And more antibiotics, ironically, although a different kind. He also suggested we give her a low dosage of Pepcid, probiotics, and feed her rice and cottage cheese. Which she actually likes, as it turns out. And the best part, we need to bring the vet some poop. They gave us a little jar that has a special lid, with a spoon on it. So right now we have a gross poopy little spoon jar in our fridge. All in all she's feeling better, though. Here she is playing "burrito:"
BurriTobi