2024/12/18 – Facebook post
Lori Ann Hicks ‘ Masasyu Malamutes – Initial Vet Visits
(From memory and not my notes.)
Yesterday was tough. Sherry Gile and I made 6 trips to the vet with the Masasyu dogs. It was an all-day, emotional event. And the staff, friends and family, at Spring City Pet Care, made an exhausting day a lot easier with their kindness and support.
Bottom line, I made the hard decision on three, taking into account medical and temperament issues, and put down Gray, Wasp, and Temper. It was awful and wretched and the right thing to do. They are with Lori and I hope readers will respect I did the best I could for them.
On the others, we did weights, vet exams, toe nail trims, fecal tests, heartworm & tick-disease tests (4dx), CBC, chem10, and t4s. We also did X-rays as needed. (Vaccinations and desexing, in some cases, are next.)
All of the remaining Masasyu dogs have relatively normal blood panels, nothing extremely low or high. All also have hookworms and will get 4 days panacur each. Kitty also has roundworms. Angel has Lyme disease (easily treatable with Doxycycline, but none of the rest have tick or heartworm diseases. 10yo 98# Mr Lee has a slightly low thyroid and he gets a 30-day starter course of thyroxine before retesting. Angel and Amelia have arthritis in one knee each, Amelia is bone on bone with some swelling, so they get meds and crate rest for 30 days (Angels Lyme disease may be aggravating her knee). 13yo 102# John Henry has some old minor and already healing point-of-the-hip pressure sores from lying on hard surfaces but he gets animax topical, a gentle brush out around those areas, and has 6″ of cedar bedding in his new doghouse. Goose had some minor cockleburr matting on his belly which brushed right out.
On the whole, I was so proud of the mental progress everyone made with leashes and loading up and walking on shiny tile floors.
John Henry and Angel were huge hits with the staff, trotted right in like the royalty they are.
Goose and Kitty (littermates) walked on leashes, and sat in the exam room for a while and got comfortable enough to snooze.
Amelia & Mr. Lee impressed me with their fast adjustment to lobbies and Christmas trees and strange barky things carried in purses. Mr. Lee will SWIM along baseboards in the clinic in protest to the indignity of the leash. But wags the whole time for blood draws.
Hammer is an absolute rockstar off leash, prancing and preening, but has a difficult relationship with leashes which he expresses by grabbing the leash in his teeth and shaking, then dropping the leash and grinning at me while wagging.
Crow has come the furthest and she was a complete doll out of the crate, put herself into the crate when gently asked, unlike some. And did the soldier crawl onto the scale. (And it was the end of a long day, so I forgot to take her pictures.)
All of these 8 remaining Masasyu dogs allowed the most intimate examinations without a bit of protest. Lifts onto tables, bear hugs for blood draws by strangers and the dreaded fecal loops. Nothing phased them, they all were apparently ‘good clean sticks’, and all around great dogs, according to staff. Thick coats and bright eyes.
All can now be put on heartworm preventions, and for the 2 girls with a bad knee each, I can schedule their spays.
That and vaccinations next.
The remaining GoFundMe and Venmo budget, after transportation costs( DruAnne Bauer Martin-Nutzell has those details) was $2500. I spent $3100 yesterday on vetting. More expenses to come, vacc, spays, ongoing treatments, and a bag a week of their food.
If you would like to donate directly to vet expenses, it’s Spring City Pet Care 423-226-6151, under Lori Hicks’ dogs.
