Yesterday went just about how I thought it would.  Between the vet visit and the weather, there was no pony time.

I left work early to pick up Scar and take her to the vet's.  The practice that we've moved to is small, with a low overhead and few employees.  There is one primary vet and a secondary vet who fills in on surgery Thursdays or when the primary needs a break.  I saw the secondary vet yesterday.  By the way, I think "former XXXX employee" is plastered somewhere on my file because she immediately started talking to me about my work history.  (If you're new to my blog: I spent about five years in small animal veterinary medicine: about two in regular day practice and about three in emergency medicine.)  (I've seen some shit.)

I get to ride in the front seat when my sister isn't here.

We went over the basics:  change in diet, change in behavior, possible foreign body, age, etc.  She gave Scar an injection for the nausea and three take home medications.  She also ran a fecal float (it's where they take a sample of the poop, mix it with water, place a slide over it and spin it in a centrifuge so eggs and other grossness rise to the slide) and a full chem.  The fecal came back negative for anything normal, but the color indicated that Scarlette has some internal bleeding.  Yeah, this should freak you out a little bit, but it's not a huge deal.  It's not like she's bleeding out, just bleeding.  If she was lethargic or agonal or had pale, tacky gums with a slow CRT (capillary refill time), then we would be concerned about bleeding out.  This just means that something got scratched or was raw and irritated.  The bloodwork, though, helps in the diagnosis.

I wait patiently.  See the loss of elasticity in her abdomen?  My little girl is getting old.  :(

I locked Savannah in the laundry room with a kong and her leftover breakfast (sympathy anorexia) and periodically checked in on the webcam.  I couldn't see her, but damn could I hear her.  When we got home, the food and kong were completely untouched and she was elated to have us back.

It's been a pain giving Scarlette the medication.  One medication and the happy pills she was already on are twice a day (BID), while the other two are three times a day (TID) and two of them have to be given half an hour before a meal.  But!  She ate dinner last night and breakfast this morning.  And gave me her happy Feed Me dance.

The bloodwork came back this morning.  The vet didn't sound super impressed by her values, but almost everything was "within normal limits" (WNL).  The only thing that wasn't was her white blood count, which was low and probably related to the internal bleeding.  Fortunately, one of the medications is actually an antibiotic for the gut (metronidazole), so we're already treating.

Thanks for all the concern about my old lady!

Give me rubs.