Another Ear Infection

Dingle has another ear infection. He just had one on September 8th. I only remember the date because we had to make a vet trip on his birthday.

Last night we made a trip to the vet again. I had spoken to the vet on the phone earlier in the day and he said to go ahead and treat with Surolan. However he wanted me to come in and have an ear cleaning demo and to get solution to clean his infected ear with.

The appointment was with a technician only - the vet wanted to spare me the appointment fees since I know what an ear infection looks like and already have the medication. So we were with the technician for about 10 minutes for this demo. I've been cleaning his ears correctly... just needed to buy the solution... don't remeber the name off hand. I was impressed because that trip only cost me $45... and that was with a bag of dental food.

Speaking of dental - Dingle's breath smells like he has a carcas lodged in his throat...again. I guess we only got a few weeks of stink free following the dental.

Dingle's recent dental, ear infection, potential new ear infection, etc.

Hm... so I'm at work... and decided to update Dingle's blog. Why is it that I only seem to do this while at work. Literally... 100% of posts were done while here.

I think Dingle may be getting another ear infection. I woke up to him with his foot stuffed in his ear. He dug around good and then stuck it in his mouth and licked/chewed it for a while.

Of course I made the dumb mistake of clipping Dingle's nails today. And by *I* I mean my boyfriend... I can't clip Dingle's nails. They are too dark and the vets told me his quick is quite high. So I generally have the vet clip his nails, but today my boyfriend did it. Clipped nails means sharp nails. Sharp nails and Dingle's obsessive itching makes me think I'll come home to a bloody, scabby ear.

If he's still scratching tomorrow on goes the e-collar... like last ear infection... 3-4 weeks ago:

Dingle had a dental 2 weeks ago. $450 and he has clean teeth. Dingle acted very unhappy for over 24 hours. He just moped around and I was worried... mainly because I was going out of town 2 days after his dental and worried about leaving him. The "what if he needs to go to the vet and I'm not here" was going through my head as was the "My boyfriend won't be able to reach me 24/7... what if..." He was fine, though. I let him eat wet food for the first day... cause I figured his teeth and gums would be sore.

Long haired dog + being groggy from anesthesia + wet food = this:

His breath is starting to smell again. $450 bought me 2 weeks of roadkill smell-free breath.

I brush his teeth, he has dental food, dental toys, yada, yada, yet it seems like every year I'm going to have to pay to have his teeth cleaned. Ugh... it's one of the few things Vet Insurance doesn't cover. Which I guess I should be happy about... not that they don't cover dentals, but because he has had so many health issues (again, not happy about that) and they have all been covered for the most part. I think everyone should get pet insurance... especially if you have a pet store dog... but you shouldn't have one from a store... don't make the mistake I did.

Speaking of which I was on Kijiji tonight and browsing ads when I decide to search the name of the store Dingle came from. Bad idea. What comes up but a little 4 month old cream sable pom that someone bought less than a week ago and is already trying to get rid of. Poor pom. Poor any-dog-from-a-pet-store.

I spoke to Dingle's eye vet about a week ago. We did a follow-up phone call (crap, that reminds me I was supposed to give another update this week and haven't yet). We have the go ahead to not come in until just before Christmas, provided there are no problems. It's been a few months since we've had to have a visit there... of course we've been to Dingle's regular vet frequently still.

And that's all I have to say...