2 posts in 1 week??

Crazy! I have to tell you though, we found a good vet and I was soo excited about it. I'll tell you first about our last experience with the vet:

So duke had an ear infection in both of his ears. This was about... 6 months ago or so, maybe a little longer. Erik took him to the vet, who before he even touched the dog, called in 2 of his assistants to come restrain him. They put Duke in a choke hold (or so erik says) and then the vet poked his little ear looker thing into dukes ear and saw that it was indeed red and that there was nothing inside of it.

He then asked erik if he ever scratches. Erik said, "Well he is a dog." and the vet said it was probably allergies, then. He gave Duke an allergy shot and told erik there would be some prescriptions for him at the front to give to the dog. The whole experience cost $90, and the worst thing is that the Dr. tells you what you need and then sells it to you, so he could sell you all kinds of stuff and you wouldn't even know you didn't need it.

so then about a month ago, it looks like duke is getting another ear infection. Just on 1 ear this time, but it's starting to get nasty and he's scratching at it all the time. Erik doesn't want to take him to the vet b/c it was expensive and the vet was really ridiculous. I started cleaning out Duke's ear every night to hopefully make the infection go down and it looked like it was getting better, but then it started to bother him more and he just kept itching it, so I finally convinced Erik to let me take him to the vet, as long as it was a different vet.

I called around to a few different places yesterday since I had the day off. The first place couldn't get me in until wednesday. The second place couldn't get me in until 4 in the afternoon, after erik would have already taken the car and gone to work. Then I called this place that was "Johnsons veterinary hospital" or something like that. I was asking the girl if there was any chance she could fit us in today, and she said that she didn't think so but she'd go check with Dr. Johnson (so the actual guy the practice was named after). She came back and said that they could see him at 1.

I showed up 15 min. early so that it would be more convenient for them to be able to take me whenever their schedule opened. I waited for about 10 min and then this guy in a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt opened the door and said, "why don't you bring duke back and we'll take a look at him". This guy is probably about 60 years old, and he told me that in his 35 years of practicing he'd seen lots of ear infections. He started talking to me about what might be causing it while he picks up the dog in his arms and steps onto a regular bathroom scale, then sets the dog down and again steps on a scale and punches the numbers into his calculator to see how much duke weighs. (71 lbs, by the way. This guy was a lot stronger than he looked, haha).

He then takes a long qtip and swabs some gunk out of duke's ear. He wiped that on a microscope slide and put some red stuff onto it and started looking at it under the microscope and tells me that he doesn't see any bacteria, just yeast and fungus. Much more scientific of a diagnosis than, "Does he ever scratch?"

He gave me some ointment, cleaned out duke's ear really good and showed me how to put the ointment in his ear. He also gave me some solution that he said to use once a week after the ear infection clears up just to keep it away. he said that if i wanted to, when it was gone, i could bring it back and they'd fill it up for a couple of dollars, or i could just go get a vinegar douche from the drug store and use that (sick, i'm douching my dog... my male dog...)

He also said that since duke's been scratching it so much (hi sear was all red on the back) he'd give him a shot to make it feel better which should last about 10 days. He said he wouldn't charge me for the shot. He also said that if I had any problems, they don't charge for rechecks, so just call them and bring him back in.

The total cost of the visit was $55: $35 for the check, $12 for the prescription, and $8 for the douche. Needless to say, I was really impressed by him and how much he seems to actually care about the animals and not so much about the money. Even if you buy the prescription online, it costs the same amount, so they can't be making too much of a profit on that.

so now duke is feeling better and I'm glad. If anyone is in UT valley and needs to know the name of a good vet, just ask me b/c i found one! :)