So I took Birgette, our recently-adopted GSD, to her first vet visit yesterday last Monday, five days after we adopted her.  The foster had mentioned that she'd been putting drops in her eyes, but couldn't tell me what the medication was or what it was treating.  And didn't, you know, give me the medication.

As the days progressed, her eyes started looking like shit.  Gunky buildup in the morning and squinting.  So I moved our appointment up.  Then D played a game of fetch with her for about twenty minutes and she spent the rest of the night limping.  We attract special-needs pets.

The derp is normally not this strong in this one.

The foster also didn't bring her records to the adoption and was supposed to have mailed both the records and her already-late dose of heartworm prevention to me.  When I went into the vet visit last Monday, I told the receptionist that I was having a hard time getting the records, who the rescue and foster were, at which vet hospital the foster worked, and she managed to retrieve everything from a surprisingly unaffiliated additional vet.  The only information the foster was really able to give me was that her eyes had looked like crap for five months (poor treatment or chronic illness?), that she had "scratches" on her eyes, but that they didn't stain them.  (so how'd they know they were scratched?)

The records from the vet actually indicated that she'd had a tear duct test and had her eyes stained, which we repeated last Monday.  She's got poor tear production in both eyes, which is a permanent condition.  The time that she was being neglected prior to rescue resulted in scarring of her right eye.  She's partially blind in that eye.  She'll need eye drops for the rest of her life.

By the time of the visit, she was no longer limping, but I asked my vet to check her hind end regardless.  She's got hips but no butt.  The vet said that her hips were in excellent condition (woo!), but that her knees already have crepitus.  I already planned on starting her on a joint supplement for preventative measures, but I want her to be on her new food for a solid week before I introduce more changes.  So next week, we'll start tapering in the joint stuff.  Hopefully my OTC stuff is sufficient and she feels more comfortable and starts filling in her atrophied muscles.  If not, we'll pursue prescription food to see if that helps.

Finally, my vet felt that she was being judged too harshly on her horrible teeth.  She demolished her incisors and bottom canines by chewing on her chain, but her back molars look great.  She adjusted the projected age from 5-7 to 3-5, which means we hopefully get to have her around longer.