Van Morrison playing, cinnamon rolls in the oven, yummy pineapple and pomegranate fruit salad on the table, hot black coffee, a clean floor, and dogs exercised. Now ready for the veterinarian to arrive! Home visits rock!
Stress free for humans and dogs, and a lovely way to visit and ask questions. As my dogs age I am trying to make choices that will be as stress free as possible, but also balance that with aging health care needs. My two senior girls have the normal lumps and bumps, some achy joints here and there, good teeth but a few that need to be monitored for sure. The boys just need well checks, and frankly $eeker loves to be messed with!
One of my big concerns this time around was their rabies vaccines. I’m very careful to not over vaccinate, but I also understand the real risks with rabies. We travel, we hike in the back country, and we’re out and about all of the time. I wanted a good check up, but also wanted to discuss their ages, health, and potential risks with a rabies vaccine at their age. They were due, and it’s the only vaccine I give my dogs throughout their lives. They get a single cell parvo and distemper as puppies, and then every three years a rabies vaccine. We support our dogs socially, emotionally, physically and nutritionally, and I will say they are pretty damn healthy!
I did my pre veterinary visit research as always. I like to discuss options, but I don’t want to waste my time or my Veterinarians time being uninformed. So before this visit I called the State Veterinarians office to find out my options as far as titers, vaccines, age, and health. What was legal, what was recommended, what was possible. I called our City’s Deputy Chief to find out what my options were for licensing based off of titers should that be the route we take. I read various articles with benefits vs risks of vaccinating a senior dog. And I should note, I don’t use Veterinarians (at least not twice!) that don’t like to talk with me, discuss options, or explain something that is completely out of my scope of knowledge. My dogs, their skills and knowledge, equal exchange in a discussion.
I use about five different veterinarians for various specialties. Chiropractic work, rehabilitation, well checks, etc. I balance my dogs care.
Dr. Raines has been one of the veterinarians we use with our dogs over the years. He is THE first Veterinarian my puppies see. He makes sure that they LOVE coming to see him. On the floor, petting, loving up, kind hands, and always something great to say about my new puppies. As my dogs age, he will be looking after their health and well being with me. He knows all about life with senior dogs, two of his, when I first met him, were 18 and 18.5 years old, and still had a great quality of life.
When Dr. Raines and his assistant Mandy walked up to the front door, they were greeted by happy barks, jumping up to say hi, twirling, and wagging tails. It was a love fest of sorts and mutual. $eeker fell desperately in love with Mandy. It makes me smile every time to witness this type of mutual love, and kindness. And how lovely for a medical well check visit to start this way.
Everyone was examined, lots of cool conversations, and the bonus was that my husband was home. This was his first veterinary experience like this and he loved it. His voice was heard, he got to watch and learn, and he loved that our senior girls were not stressed.
$eeker kept easing his way onto the pillow in hopes Mandy would massage him again. Franny loves being touched so her examine was more like a Spa Day for her. Story oddly enough didn’t want to be messed with too much, I’ll have to do even more handling work before the next visit. Ocean and Franny, from the mouth of Dr. Raines, are in awesome health, Granny Rock Stars!
And I had them in their new holiday attire too!
My only complaint, while they had coffee and tea while we were all settling in, they ate nothing! Next time, I will simply hand them a plate of yummy food. Part of people coming to my house is me being able to feed them, that is my simple pleasure!
Cheers to stress free veterinary visits, cheers to healthy dogs!
Nancy
























































































































