Cookie’s Semi-Annual Wellness Exam

With all our dogs, we keep a schedule of two wellness exams every year. One in the spring, one in the fall.

Last year, with JD’s passing and our struggle to make the tiny home inhabitable, we didn’t get around to the exam until before Christmas. It’s not the best timing for a bunch of reasons, including the fact that you’re risking the possibility of getting an unpleasant surprise just before the holidays.

Fortunately, there were no surprises.

Cookie’s exams, both conventional and integrative, checked out. She’s doing well, and there were even some improvements from the last check-up. I always like to hear that. Cookie also lost 3kg since the previous weigh-in, which is also great.

We discussed how Cookie is doing, her diet and supplements. I am one of the lucky ones whose veterinarian is cool with raw feeding. We also went over my concerns. Naturally, if there were any real problems, I wouldn’t have waited for a scheduled exam. I only wait when I know the issue can wait.

I had the vet check two little growths which I assumed were either skin tags or warts.

I was prepared to discuss how we should best support the immune system if they were warts. But they are skin tags. Probably from how enthusiastically Cookie dives into everything and anything when in pursuit of a mouse.

We talked about Cookie’s incontinence.

Between her chiropractic care, supplements, and a course of estrogen once or twice a year, things are controlled quite well for the most part. There is the odd leak. There is also the odd clear mucoid discharge; this has been happening periodically for a long time, and it’s not a major concern such as it is.

We talked about ticks.

For the longest time, we had little to no problem with ticks. But in December we suddenly started experiencing a tick invasion, finding them on Cookie almost every day. This is disconcerting, should the trend continue. We did try having Cookie on Advantix, but she had a bad reaction to it. Since we didn’t encounter more than one or two ticks a year, we simply dropped the whole idea. But now we have to revisit it.

The top contender for preventive is Bravecto, which is what the vet also recommends. I did my research, and it seems to be the best option. Yet, I can bring myself to feel comfortable about it. Because it seems that in our area the only disease spread by ticks is Lyme disease, I wonder whether it would be better to use the vaccine instead. I am not a big fan of the Lyme vaccine either, but it seems to be the lesser of the evil.

We still have a little bit of time for me to make up my mind about this.

We talked about Cookie’s mysterious scratching of her left shoulder.

Cookie is not “an itchy dog.” Her coat and skin look happy and healthy, And yet she has been scratching her left shoulder frequently enough for me to pay attention. I checked the skin over and over and never found anything wrong with it. The vet checked the skin as well. There is nothing detectable going on with the skin.

I am more concerned about other possible reasons why Cookie would be doing that. It is very reminiscent of Jasmine’s scratching her left elbow. There was nothing wrong with her skin either. She did have some arthritis there … but with all said and done, I believe that it was from at that time only brewing, issues with her neck. Which makes me pay even closer attention to Cookie’s elbow scratching.

However, neither her vet, her chiropractor, or her PT can really put their finger on what is really bothering her there.

The vet did find some tension in the left trapezius but nothing really significant. She did dry-needle a few points, but it didn’t make any difference for the scratching. A thorough massage by her PT did reduce it, though.

We did a urinalysis and full blood panel.

There was nothing of concern on any lab work, other than a couple of minor discrepancies which in themselves don’t really mean anything.

Cookie’s ALT was very slightly elevated but not enough to try and open that can of worms again. Her platelets were a touch below normal, but that can happen when they clump together during the draw.

I did faithfully enter all the important values into my trends spreadsheet. There are no concerning trends happening.

All seems well in Cookieland.

Originally, I also wanted to test the blood for tick-borne diseases, but since we kept finding so many just prior to the draw, it makes more sense to wait a bit and then run the tests. Which means just about whenever we’re ready now. I also wanted to run thyroid panel with Dr. Dodds but might as well do these specialized tests together. Or wait a couple more months and do it as part of the Spring check-up, along with Heartworm test.

Further reading:
Wellness Examination in Dogs