My Princess Daisy *dot* com - 1st Annual Vet Visit

1st Annual Vet Visit

Can you believe it's been over a year since I took Daisy to the vet for her last set of puppy shots?? Well, I can't. It was April 9, 2003 when I last visited the vet for Daisy's last set of shots after I got her. Today is the 16th of April, so it's been over a year. I received the post card form the vet last week telling me that it is time for Daisy's annual shots, consisting of her Rabies, Parvovirus and Corona/Bordetella. Sounds good.

So, I called today to make the appointment and the receptionist asks when I would like the appointment. I say, "As soon as possible." She says that she has an opening at 5:15 today. I said, "Sounds good." So I made sure to get out of work as soon as possible, so I could run home and get Daisy so I can make it to the Vet by 5:15pm. I picked up Daisy at 5:10pm and we were out of there. We arrived to the Vet a little late, but it was okay because there was someone there picking up their dog, so the Vet was assisting them. We sat in the waiting room and waited for about 5 minutes before the receptionist called us into the back. Before she actually called us into the back, she asked if I needed to see the Vet... meaning, if I needed to talk to him about anything. I said sure! What a mistake, but we'll come back to my mistake later. So I told the receptionist, "Sure I want to talk to him. I want to ask him about Anal Glands." She says okay.

So she calls us in to the back and first takes Daisy to the scale to weigh her. She weighs 33.4 lbs. Not too bad, eh? A little hefty, I'd say, but not too bad. Daisy doesn't look fat. She's got a nice Beagle shape going on, so no need to put her on a diet. She's pretty active and mostly solid muscle. It's awesome. So Daisy and I are waiting in the examination room for just a few minutes and the Vet walks in. He asks how I am, etc. etc. and asks how Daisy is, etc. etc. I say, "Fine. How are you?" He doesn't answer me. That's cool, whatever. LOL. He says, "So, you have questions about Anal Glands? Is Daisy scooching her butt or licking it?" I said, "Yeah. She licks it and then she makes her butt smell really bad." He asks, "Is it like a musty smell?" I answered, "Yeah. It's hard to describe, but musty sounds about right." He turns around and reaches for something. I thought he was reaching for a thermometer to take Daisy's temperature. Well I guessed wrong. He said for me to hold Daisy's head still and hold her so she doesn't turn around to bite or anything. I said okay, thinking he was going to stick the thermometer you know where. So he goes back there and I'm not really paying attention to what he's doing and all of a sudden, Daisy squeaks a little bit out of pain. As soon as she did that, the vet stopped what he was doing and I looked at his hands, and he had Kleenex saturated with Anal Gland Juice. GROSS! I mean, I've done it before and all, but I use Latex gloves and I just let it squirt into the bathtub that I have Daisy standing in. You never realized how much actually comes out when the glands are expressed until you use Kleenex to catch the juice. THEN, here comes the smell!!! UGH! Horrible. It almost makes me gag! After that, the Vet went into a whole lecture about Anal Glands and all that good stuff. He told me it's totally normal. He said that sometimes you only do it once and never have to do it again to your dog. I started thinking about all the lucky people out there that have only done it once, and that's it. Not in my case. I usually have to do it about every 3 or 4 weeks. I asked the Vet if it was okay that I express the glands manually that often. He said, "Sure. That's fine. You can do it as often as you'd like. Even every day if you want to." That kind of shocked me when he said that. Every day? That's crazy! I guess it's a good way to keep the glands "regular". I'm not going to do it every day.

So after the Gland experience in the examination room, he then pulled out the syringes for Daisy's shots. Scary stuff. He again told me to hold Daisy still while he does his thing. I said, "Okay." He went for the first shot and Daisy reacted a little bit to what he was doing. She tried to turn around to where he was injecting her, but being as strong as I am, I held her in place pretty good. The second shot came and it was pretty much like the first. Then, the Vet told me that the next one would burn a little bit as it was going in. I said, "Okay." and I braced myself for the worst. It seemed to bother Daisy a little bit more than the others, but other than that, it was a piece of cake. Daisy did so well. I was proud of her.

After that, the Vet wrapped it up and said Daisy looks very healthy and happy. I said, "Thanks!" as I proceeded to the receptionist area so I could pay. The receptionist says, "Okay. That will be $65.00." I said okay, not really thinking too much about it, even though I knew the visit was only going to be about $40.00. After I paid I asked, "How come it was $65.00?" She said, "Oh because you had to pay $25.00 for the visit." Then I realized that when she asked me if I needed to talk to the Vet, that would be an additional $25.00. Sneaky huh? If I didn't want to talk to the Vet, they would have just taken Daisy into the back and given her the shots and that would have been IT. So that was my mistake. It's okay though. I'm glad I got to be in the room with her while she was getting her shots and I'm glad that I was able to talk to the Vet about Anal Glands. It made me feel better about the whole... gland thing.

I am always so proud of Daisy after visiting the Vet. She behaves so well in public and is friendly with everyone. You gotta love her!