# Vet appointment-I'm scared



## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

Shadow is going to the vet Saturday. She has this thing on her tongue that looks like a raspberry, it's been there all her life. She also has a hole/dent and the very tip of her tongue is split, these were all prior to her coming home with me.
Anyway, recently the raspberry thing has looked different? sort of. Darker, redder, maybe bigger?
I discussed this with the vet and the decision was sedate the crazy witch and check her nose to tail, do some blood work since she is six this year. Sedatives and Shadow frighten me, but there is no way to get a good look in her mouth otherwise so I have been sitting here quietly freaking out all week.
Can someone please tell me I am just nuts?


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## Traveler's Mom (Sep 24, 2012)

Hi Sabis mom,

No, you aren't nuts. You are reacting just like most of us would. We all worry when we take our pups to the vet for one thing or another. Heck, I worry when I go to the doctors!

If Shadow has an issue, you'll handle it. If it's nothing to be concerned about, you'll celebrate. Either way, you'll manage just fine.

Sending best,
Lynn & Traveler


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

Thanks for the encouragement. 

She is all I have left. And I am so scared. I know that seems stupid and I am a grown woman, but I just cannot lose this one to.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

Sending you and Shadow good thoughts for an uneventful vet visit. 

I know you've been through so much recently--the thought of illness right now is scary. Focus on positive thoughts and a good outcome, if only to keep Shadow from picking up on your anxiety before the vet. Maybe it's just age changing the look of the spot -- our own marks and moles change as we age, maybe dogs' do too.


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## dogma13 (Mar 8, 2014)

Sending calming thoughts for you and Shadow.You're both strong enough ladies to overcome anything.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Sabis mom, you are going to lose this one too. I am sorry, but she is six years old, and some time within the next 6-7 years, she is going to cross that bridge where you can't follow. It is a price we all pay. Some of us get our dog to 13 or even 14, some dogs don't make it to six. In some ways, we really are only temporary guardians of these critters. We do have to give them back. And it always is hard.

That said, yes you are working yourself up. Unless she has had a negative reaction to sedation, they should be able to safely sedate her lightly to be able to look at the thing in her mouth. The thing in her mouth, if it has suddenly changed, is more of a cause for concern and getting it checked now is being proactive. Hopefully it is nothing to be concerned with. That not being the case, hopefully you noted the changes and brought it to the vet in time to prevent any disease to progress further. 

Worrying about it can't add a hair to your head, or a day to her life. It can take away time that you have. And it can make her more ill at ease -- make the entire ordeal more stressful, so cut it out. It really isn't helpful.

The werewolf lost use of her back legs briefly a few days ago. I took her up and they anesthetized her, took pictures, and gave her a reversal shot. I could not have improved the x-rays, or improved the experience for her by being nervous at all. I willed myself not to be nervous. X-rays were ok. We are unsure what is going on. She is inside most of the time, and maybe it was heat-related. It was miserably hot to be running around with the big dogs, and she only has one speed (fast-forward). Sometimes we have to discipline this particular emotion so that our dogs are not negatively effected. I know it is not easy. Parents have to do it, when they take their kids to the ER -- no one is served by parents melting down in front of their kids. Our kids need to be reassured by our presence. So do our dogs. 

This is why so many vets want to take the dogs into the back (away from owners) to work on them. Because we make it worse for the dogs by worry/nervousness -- dogs can smell that shtuff all the way out in the parking lot. We have to not just pretend we aren't nervous but we have to figure out how not to be nervous.


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## GatorBytes (Jul 16, 2012)

Free Your Dogs From Warts or Papillomas


She's had it forever. Could just be papilloma virus she got as a pup. You all went through a tough time, loosing home, motels, moving, bud passing and she has picked up on it. Seems she might just be having an immune system malfunction that has allowed this to get a little angrier. Or you might be seeing things differently now that Bud has passed.
You're not nuts. You are helicopter dog mom:wink2: 
You have the app. Do a biopsy just to be sure, bloods might be helpful in some other way (baseline for her current health status), but doubt will relate anything back to what is happening in the mouth.
These clusters are not uncommon. And, she has always had.
Boost her immune system, nutritionally and emotionally


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

Yes I am crazy, and yes I am doing my very best not to transmit to her how very scared I am. 
Sedative is to allow a complete nose to tail, she has been abnormally itchy, has lost weight, has a spot on her eye and has broken a couple teeth. The scar tissue on her ear tips seems an odd color and is getting lumpy, and she has what I hope is a cyst on her neck. 
Vet and I are suspicious of either a low grade systemic infection or some type of auto immune thing. 
Activity levels are normal, food and water intake are normal, coat and skin look great, but her stools have an orangey color and she has random bouts of soft stool that has a greasy look to it.
She eats a good quality kibble with raw pork, raw chicken and raw veggies and berries. She gets coconut oil added to kibble and an occasional egg. She eats better then I do and she has had essentially the same diet all her life. 
I am trying to be reasonable, but I really am terrified. If I lose her, I have nothing left. 
The lump on her tongue was always a concern, she had it when I got her and the vet was certain it was a wart or scar tissue. It has never changed until now. I check it once a week. The blood work is simply because she will be out anyway and six is perfect timing for a baseline.


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## ksotto333 (Aug 3, 2011)

I'm sending you positive thoughts. Yes, I would be scared also, but at least you'll know how she is.


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## Susan_GSD_mom (Jan 7, 2014)

Oh, I know these fears. I hope everything works out to be not so serious as what you are fearing. One of my wolfdogs had a spot on his tongue, and it turned out to be granular tissue, irritation from chewing on nylabones. Many times our imagination works overtime, and things turn out to be not as bad as we fear. I so hope that's what you will find out. :hug:

Susan


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## GatorBytes (Jul 16, 2012)

Hi. How did the vet app go today?


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

GatorBytes said:


> Hi. How did the vet app go today?


It didn't .

That was the worst fiasco I have ever seen. The tech that tried to weigh her was terrified, someone walked in while we were out front with an off leash dog. "Don't worry she's friendly".
We got her into an exam room and someone knocked a tray over outside the door. 
By the time the vet came in with the sedative Shadow was a quivering, snarling mess. We tried to give her a few minutes to settle but she wasn't and with her heart slamming the way it was the vet declined to sedate her, since we still don't know what is really wrong with her heart, if anything.

It took me hours to get her to come out of her crate. I had to buy her a new stuffy.
We rescheduled for next week. Different plan.

Friday we go in get weighed have a treat and leave.
Saturday the vet meets us at the truck, checks her heart and sedates her. We let her go out in the truck and I carry her in.


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

Sabis mom said:


> It didn't .
> 
> That was the worst fiasco I have ever seen. The tech that tried to weigh her was terrified, someone walked in while we were out front with an off leash dog. "Don't worry she's friendly".
> We got her into an exam room and someone knocked a tray over outside the door.
> ...


People in vets offices are just plain stupid. I bring my golden in and everyone is holding their dogs and no flexi leads. 3 days later I bring Robyn in and dogs on flexis everywhere, I'm body blocking dogs from getting into her face and not one person thought it was an issue. Normally she isn't bad, but she was still in pain from the surgery. I told the vet that something needs to be done. Why do people think its ok for their dog to get in my dogs face? And it's always withe GSDs. I told the vet I don't want another dog that is sick getting my dog sick nor do I want my dog to eat th other dog. Very aggravating. 

I hope the next visit goes well and is less stressful for both of you.


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## Springbrz (Aug 13, 2013)

Oh my that didn't go well at all. Poor girl. The new plan sounds much better. I hope it goes as planned next time. 

Does the vet have a rear entrance. Ours does. They use for for special circumstances like these. 

And who in there right mind brings a dog to a vet off leash, friendly or not. I hope the vet reprimanded that owner for such poor judgement.


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

the vet is fantastic and she was very upset that this derailed so badly. 

It was the tech that set her off though. Shadow is just one of those dogs that has explosive energy. She was muzzled and leashed but she came in like a bomb. Getting her on the scale was no problem but the tech leaned over and Shadow jumped, the tech jumped back and that set everything off. Then I almost had her standing and this wiggly Pibble comes flying through the door right at her.
The problem is that they will not administer a sedative until they can listen to her heart, because we have no clue what it might do. 

I don't understand vet clinic dogs.


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## gsdsar (May 21, 2002)

Aw that stinks! 

I can't tell you how many times I have step in and tell people to leash their dogs, or get in between one dog on a flexi leash trying to visit another dog. It's frustrating. For all parties. 

Hopefully Plan B will go better!


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Wouldn't the vet's office be liable, at least in part, if one of their client's leashed dog chewed on another client's unleashed dog?

There are signs in my vet's office that says to keep dogs on leash. I believe that small animals are to be kept in a carrier. Mostly there, people do this. But it's not 100%. Someone with an elderly small dog, an older guy, just let him out of the exam room. And yes, he saw my dog and said, "she's ok" in reference to his own dog. My dog was ok, so it wasn't an issue, but it certainly could have been. 

A vet clinic that allows clients to leave their dogs off-lead on a regular basis could probably be named as a co-defendent if a dog did get ripped up, and a plaintiff could probably expect more in the way of punitive damages from a veterinary clinic with insurance, than every Tom, ****, Harry that takes his dog to the vet. 

Calling your vet's office and complaining about the loose dog, and how you are seriously considering going elsewhere if you run into that again, might move mountains. A non-incident (a scary moment with no blood), can be forgotten and not acted upon. Kind of like, if you crash your car and run into a tree, you are probably not going to drive home super tired, or will pull over and rest if you do get seriously tired, whereas, if you just jerk awake and you are still driving in your lane and just slowing down a bit -- that might not make you change. 

So, no blood and all the people in the vet office brush it off, and life goes back to normal. If someone's dog bites or even kills another dog, then there will be BIG signs about keeping your animal caged or leashed, no flexi-leads, etc., the gal at the reception desk will hand owners a simply 4' leash if they come in non-compliant. And clinic animals/employee animals will be kept in secure areas. 

My vet has a cat (that they tell me nobody likes). I think Jenna took one look at it and went for it. I figure, if their cat gets attacked by a leashed dog in their clinic, that's on them. No, I don't want my dog to do that, but if it happens, I am not going to feel bad or differently about my dogs. 

And the employees bring in their dogs. Usually there are 3 or 4 dogs of various sizes in the area behind the counter. The counter is a large square area with an incoming counter, and out going counter on the other side and along the side opposite to the outter wall, it is counter height with a baby gate. Their dogs stay in the area and do not eat eachother or bark at clients' dogs. Occasionally clients' dogs bark at them. But everyone is secure. The biggest threat is in clients feeling their Putsy doesn't need a line because he always stays right by their side. These people think everyone loves Putsy, including all other dogs, even scary dogs. And maybe they think that if your dog isn't good around dogs, than you shouldn't take it anywhere including the vet. More likely though, they just aren't thinking about it at all. They never consider how they would feel if Putsy landed in a Doberman's jaws and was shaken to death in an instant. And likely, they could make a case for the dog doing it regardless if their dog was on leash. 

In short, for the most part, if our dog has a problem, than we have a problem. I think though that we maybe have a little more leverage in a vet's office.


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

The loose dog I do not think was a client, just someone walking in. The man was told right away to leash her, and the staff were pissed. This is a new vet for Shadow because her old vet was afraid of her and that was getting annoying. 
Thing is when I have my dog leashed and muzzled, she isn't the problem. And she has every right to be anywhere I take her, especially a vet clinic where I am a paying client. It is not my dog that's not in control.
I am appreciative of the care and planning that this vet is willing to provide for Shadow to try and help her, maybe finally get me some answers and a plan.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

If the small dog that someone brought in without a leash, got chewed on by a leashed dog at a vet, the small dog owner would be liable for their dog getting chewed on. But, that isn't always how things work. People sue sometimes over stupid crap. The small dog owner could sue you and sue the vet for their dog's demise. 

They may not win, but they may deem the dog dangerous. I was asking in general, don't they have requirements because allowing that to happen regularly is a lawsuit waiting to happen. And even if it gets thrown out, it is still a huge pain. 



Sabis mom said:


> The loose dog I do not think was a client, just someone walking in. The man was told right away to leash her, and the staff were pissed. This is a new vet for Shadow because her old vet was afraid of her and that was getting annoying.
> Thing is when I have my dog leashed and muzzled, she isn't the problem. And she has every right to be anywhere I take her, especially a vet clinic where I am a paying client. It is not my dog that's not in control.
> I am appreciative of the care and planning that this vet is willing to provide for Shadow to try and help her, maybe finally get me some answers and a plan.


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## Chip18 (Jan 11, 2014)

Oh man ... sorry to hear your dog is having some health "issues" I pray everything turns out OK ... when she finally gets checked. It sounds like you now have a plan worked out. Sorry you have to go through so much trouble.

Vet Office, PetCo and Dog Parks, that's where you'll find the worst of the worst ... and there dogs! Hope it goes better next time.


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## MollyMarie (Jan 22, 2016)

I am sorry you've had such a rough time lately.  I will pray for both you and Shadow. Please keep us updated on how her vet visit goes.


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