Tuesday, April 8, 2008

A dog named Ralphie.

Mr. NoNameYet is trying on the name Ralphie for size. I don't like "traditional" pit bull names...ya know...names like Bruiser (Dudley's former name), Bullet, Chainsaw. It doesn't exactly help their already bad reputation...then again, the people naming their dogs like that aren't helping much either. But I digress...

I dropped Ralphie off at the vet this morning for a day of fun. First they bathed him and picked all his scabs off to clean out his wounds. That's when they found and removed 17 ticks that somehow outsmarted the two Capstar pills he'd had. Then he was neutered. While under anesthesia, my vet opened up a few of the larger wounds on his front left leg so they could drain.

As for the bloodwork...Doc found a few filariae in his blood sample but said that they could just as easily be from fleas as from heartworms. So the plan is to start him on Heartgard immediately and retest in 6mos. At this point, he's too weak and thin to handle any harsh heartworm treatment anyway. Which brings me to his weight. 41lbs. At best, that's 12-15lbs underweight.

He'll stay at the vet until Saturday to rest and recover (I think that's the vet's nice way of saying my house is a circus!) and we'll pick up from there.

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