Emmy's Vet Appointment

On Saturday morning before Linda came over, I took Emmy to the vet for her annual checkup.  We were just in the vet's office a couple of months ago for a heartworm test.  I really wish all of her check up stuff could be at the same time, but all of her vaccines are due in different seasons.  When we went for her heartworm test they told me that she was getting a little chunky.  I could definitely see that for myself.  So I've been on a mission to get her back down to size.  We have been running almost everyday for the last month and a half now that the weather is nicer.  I expected her to have lost weight, but when we went for her physical on Saturday she got on the scale and she gained two pounds!  She even had a furcut since her last weigh in!  The vet said that she feels pretty healthy and he can feel her ribs so she probably only needs to lose those two pounds and she'll be ideal.  I'm guessing it's muscle because her belly is going back to the ideal dog swoop.  (We both tend to gain weight during the rainy season.)

The vet also mentioned that the food we've been giving her is probably very low in fiber and high in calories as most commercial dog food is.  I've always fed her Adult Dog Pedigree and have never had a problem with it.  But it seems that now, even though we've cut out all training treats and extra rice with dinner, she is still not losing enough weight.  Unless a certain Uncle gives her treats while I'm not looking, she hasn't been getting any unless there are new visitors who I want her to feel comfortable around.  This is a pretty rare occasion though.   Let me also put out there that our daily runs are about 2.5 miles long and has quite a few inclines.  When I told the vet, he said that on average humans only burn 125 calories per mile and dogs burn fewer.  That depressed me.  So the vet suggested that I try a high fiber dog food that has fewer calories.  He said that she's not at the point where she needs actual diet food, but since we're giving her the recommended amount of food daily (we use a measuring cup), that switching her food might be helpful.  Christopher and I picked up some "light" Science Diet food for her yesterday to start integrating with her regular stuff.  It says on the package that it is high in fiber and helps hunger throughout the day.  It also boasts that it's the "tastiest formula".  I'm not sure how they figured that one out, though I do imagine little dogs in their labs going, "Mmm this one is the best," while pointing a paw at the bowl.

Aside from her being a little bit over weight, she is healthy.  I have to take her back in for another heartworm checkup because we found a tick on her that I had missed from her squirrel hunting escapade.    Just to be safe, the vet said to wait two more weeks and then bring her back in for the test.  He also gave her a rattle snake vaccine because he said that a lot of times if there are ticks, there are rattle snakes.  We will be going back in a month for the booster.  Lots of vet visits!  We neighbor a city that I know has a lot of woody and grassy areas that has snakes and I wouldn't be to surprised if there are rattle snakes by us too but haven't shown their little rattlers.  I've seen snakes around our area, but they're always the cute little green ones.  The vet said that it is advisable to get the vaccine because it is really difficult and expensive to get a rattle snake antidote where the vaccine is only $30.  Basically, the way the vaccine works, to my understanding anyway, is that if she gets bitten then the flesh around the bite will die, which prevents it from attacking her organs.  For $30, that is fine by me.  We run through a lot of tall grass so it's better to be safe than sorry.  Now I just have to worry about myself!

Since my parents are gone and the house was nice and quiet
this was how Emmy was trying to wake me up around 11am.
Nowadays since my parents are up early on weekends I've been
getting up around 9am, which is sad for me since I like to sleep in.