The Exciting Adventures of Moss at the Vet

The sneezing started Monday afternoon, progressing to wheezing and lethargy by Monday night, pawing at the face and general misery by Tuesday morning.

Clearly, whatever was in Moss's nose was not going to get better on its own. I feared foxtail; a quick post to my facebook friends (most of which are very knowledgeable dog people) confirmed that the best option was to take him to the vet.

After all, foxtails are freaking dangerous.

Crap.

The problem? I just moved to Kennewick, know like two people other than my husband, and don't know anything about the vets in my area. So, armed with Google, I picked the first vet that was somewhat close. Ironically, they have the same name as my vet in Boise: Vista Veterinary Hospital.

In an oddly fortuitous turn, they had an appointment at 10:30, ten minutes from the time of my call. I snapped it up, in spite of the receptionist's obvious sigh of disapproval when she asked if Moss was neutered and I said no. Anyways... I threw on some clothes (it can't be called an "outfit"), and dragged my husband and Mr. Wheezy McGee (aka Moss) into the car. By this time, Moss's eyes were all squinty and he looked really uncomfortable. He just wasn't acting like himself, and I was worried.

After filling out some "new patient" paperwork at the vet, we were ushered into an exam room to wait for the doctor. When he came in, I was struck by just how YOUNG he looked. A year or two older than me, tops. Luckily, he was fantastic. He checked Moss over, couldn't see much, and then laid out our options for Moss:

1) take him home and wait it out for a few days.
2) put him under anesthetic and look up his nose with a scope and try to get whatever is in there out.
3) bring out the big guns and take him to the vet hospital in Pullman.

Option one, while the cheapest, really did nothing to fix Moss's discomfort. Plus, we'd already spent 60 bucks for an exam. I wanted to get this whole thing figured out, and pronto. Option three seemed like a little, well, much. Moss wasn't sneezing blood or anything.

We decided to go with the second option, and left Moss at the vet for a few hours to get the procedure done. Leaving him was really hard for both Joe and I. We were both grim and nervous the whole afternoon.

3 PM couldn't come fast enough. After waiting around for awhile, we were shown to the office conference room, where the vet came and talked with us about the procedure and Moss's treatment. They did not end up finding anything in Moss's nose (ugh, of course, right?), but his nasal cavities and throat were extremely inflamed and they did find some pus. They flushed his nose out extensively and gave him a shot of a strong anti-inflammatory.

The showed us some pictures of Moss's throat, too, which were cool. Here's one for your viewing pleasure :-P



Moss was still pretty doped up when we were allowed to take him home... a bit unsteady on his feet, whimpering softly and with a far away look in his eyes like a druggie who woke up fifty miles away from where he fell asleep, wearing someone else's pants. It wasn't his best day :-P

This is your Moss on drugs:



After we got home, I spent a few hours hanging out with Moss on the couch, feeding him some ice cream, and making sure he was okay.

He hasn't sneezed since.

Cross your fingers that they got whatever was bugging him out of his system and that he doesn't have a foxtail migrating slowly towards his brain.

Oh, and if anyone in the Tri Cities is looking for a vet, Dr. Matt Stidham at Vista Vet is awesome! He gave me his cell number to call in case Moss wasn't doing any better, since he won't be in the office today. What a nice guy and a good vet, too.