JayDee Meets the Vet

Before you can take a new puppy to the veterinarian, you have to have a veterinarian to take the puppy to. Obvious, very obvious, except I had been out of the puppy business for twenty plus years. So I decided to interview offices prior to getting my new pup! A very interesting thing to do.

I thought it would be good to return to a veterinary practice I had used many years ago for Shana Bana, and “interview” them. Obviously the office staff personnel had changed, and even several new doctors had been added. I entered the reception area of the office, which was empty of patients, and approached the front desk. I mentioned that I didn’t as yet even own a dog, but expected that our pup would be born in early June and we would bring her home early in August. Typically people are quite pleased with this type of announcement, but this particular receptionist just looked at me, sort of dumbfounded. So I asked if she had any brochures that had information about their practice and the services that were available. She said that she did not understand what I wanted. I then asked about what I could expect would happen when I brought a new puppy in for examination and puppy shots. She suddenly seemed to understand what I wanted, but by this time, I felt that I was in the wrong office.

I have a suspicion that most doctors, whether they are physicians, dentists, opticians, veterinarians or whatever, have absolutely no idea what their front desk people say to the general public. Some of them would be shocked! I put myself in this same boat. As a dental specialist, I fill my work day caring for patients, and although I pass through the front desk area from time to time, I cannot monitor my staff and their interactions with the patients. I hope that they are more people friendly than that lady!

I contacted a friend and colleague who has had a number of dogs over the years and has an absolutely gorgeous Golden at present. He was quite satisfied with his veterinarian, a practitioner at Loyalsock Animal Hospital. They have five veterinarians, two of whom are a father and son. I went to “interview” that practice and Carla, their receptionist was most pleasant and informative. I felt that this was the practice for me and my future pup. Just before I left, she said, “You’re not going to spoil that new puppy your going to get, are you?” As I replied “Absolutely not!” she gave me a “you don’t have a clue” look! Well, we would just have to see, wouldn’t we!

During the first week that she joined our family, JayDee had her initial appointment with the vet. Since she didn’t need any inoculations, it was a low key examination plus a stool sample. This time Joanne was at the front desk, and it was obvious that she had a wonderful rapport with both people and pets. We requested Dr Thomas Knoebel, the founder of the practice. The appointment was a most pleasant experience for all concerned. JayDee was so calm, cool, and collected, that at one point Dr Knoebel had to wake her up! I expected that JayDee would require deworming, even though Jenn Craig had predicted otherwise. The stool sample came back negative so Jenn was vindicated and JayDee got a 100% positive report. Dr Knoebel was very complimentary about our breeder and about both the sire and dam. He gave me a sample for JayDee’s first dose of Heartguard Plus to prevent heartworm and Advantix to prevent fleas and ticks. I found this veterinarian both caring and professional and I looked forward to having him on JayDee’s team.

Because I wanted JayDee to meet all of the docs on staff, and of course for all the docs to become acquainted with her, I purposefully made her second appointment, which was two weeks later, with Dr John Broshkevitch. I again brought a stool sample, just to be sure, and this appointment was for inoculations.

We met Dr Broshkevitch who turned out to be most friendly and competent. I brought my ear cleaning solution and on the premise of “see one, do one, teach one” Dr John showed me the technique: stretch the ear canal and put the solution into the ear, massage the ear, thereby easing the solution to where it needed to go. Let the dog shake her head (JayDee did it on cue). Then use sheet cotton, not cotton balls, wrapped around the index finger and clean out the ear. When he did it, JayDee groaned – he said with pleasure. When I did it, she was silent – maybe it is “do one or more”. This visit she received her second inoculation series; she didn’t yip so the shots couldn’t have been too bad. She weighed 23 pounds – the girl was growing!. I was almost out the door when the stool sample showed parasites related to rabbit poop. Yup, we have bunny rabbits and when JayDee buries her nose into the grass, who knows what’s there. 10 days of peanut butter covered pills!

Our next appointment was with Dr Jennifer Pardoe, another very pleasant individual. JayDee weighed 32 pounds. Wow! I pointed out that JayDee had what looked to me to be bug bites on her inguinal area skin, and Dr Pardoe diagnosed a bacteriologic condition that I was to treat topically, once each day with a special chlorhexidine shampoo. Otherwise JayDee checked out fine. She received her next series of inoculations and to my surprise, her stool sample came back negative.

Our next appointment was for JayDee’s final inoculations and it was with Dr Jeremy Knoebel, the heir apparent, and he too was very pleasant. JayDee was a model patient and she didn’t flinch. This appointment she received her rabies injection and a red, heart shaped tag to prove it. At just four months of age, JayDee weighed 39 pounds.

JayDee’s next appointment with the vet was unanticipated. The day after Thanksgiving, Daniel, our Physician’s Assistant in Training, noticed that “there was something wrong with JayDee’s right eye”. It looked like her lower lid had a lesion and there was a cream colored discharge in the corner. Interestingly, JayDee wasn’t worrying it, so I delayed taking action to see what would develop. The next morning, it looked a bit worse so I called Loyalsock Animal Hospital and they got us right in. This time we met Dr Mary Lou Beers, who was also one of the originators of the practice. I don’t know what it is with veterinarians, but they all are very nice people. Maybe animal lovers are just nice people, I don’t know, but each and everyone of these practitioners, and those on their staff have been most pleasant. Dr Beers used Flourescein Stain to rule out any corneal scratches. Dr Beers mentioned that this would be painful but JayDee was a perfect patient. I was very proud of her and it was my pleasure being her partner. Dr Beers asked me if my jacket was washable because the Flourescein Stain put a mark on it as I held JayDee’s muzzle. I said the jacket could be replaced but JayDee's eyes could not.

Dr Beers addressed several other concerns I had. JayDee weighed 53 pounds and she was one week shy of six months old. Dr Beers prescribed Cephalexin 500 mgs, twice a day, 10-day course and bacitracin-neomycin-polymyxin ophthalmic ointment which needed to be applied at 8 hour intervals.

When we got home, I gave JayDee her monthly shower-bath and it was a very positive experience. I removed her collar so I would have unfettered access to the coat around her neck and she didn’t resist at all, she didn’t shake in fear, and she didn’t try to escape. She was delightfully cooperative. It took 3 large beach towels to “dry” her off and then it took 3 hours for the remainder of the moisture to evaporate. Her coat was silky to the touch and she smelled great! JayDee zonked out most of the day, whether it was the eye lid infection or the antibiotics or whatever, but we still were able to complete our morning and afternoon walks (wouldn’t want to miss them, now, would we).

The next morning when I brought JayDee down to the kitchen the eye looked worse. There was a lot of discharge on top of her lower lid and I felt bad for her. I was afraid that I would hurt her if I wiped the discharge away, so I put the ophthalmic ointment further up on her eye and rewarded her cooperative behavior with a dollop of peanut butter, in which I had sequestered an antibiotic capsule. We then headed out for our morning walk. During the walk I realized that since there had been no discharge from the corner of her eye, the situation probably was not as bad as it looked. Our entire walk was in the before dawn dark so I couldn’t adequately examine until we got back home and sure enough, her eye lid looked better.

We would have future appointments at the vets as JayDee matured, but this constituted her puppyhood experiences. 
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