Dempsey's recent vet visit

Well, as I said on another thread Dempey has been very lethargic for a couple of weeks now. When I took him to the vets last week to discuss his annual booster (which wasn't needed, my vet advocates every 3 years), I mentioned it to them.

They took blood & urine samples & we went back today to discuss the results. All results were damn near perfect. His heart is strong & healthy, his kidneys are fine & there's no sign of thyroid problems. His white blood cells were spot on (so no infection or cancer, thank God!) as were nearly all the results. However, his calcium levels were slightly high and his red blood cell count was slightly low.

I'll give the vet his due, he spent about half an hour discussing the results & possible causes with me & we've come to the following possibilities.

1. Ticks. This could be the reason for the slightly low red blood cell count, and could be a contributory factor with th lethargy.
2. As he is chicken (all poultry?) intollerant, there could also be a mild intolerance to other foods.
3. There could be adhesions in the gut/intestines resulting from the recent operation.
4. He could be heat intolerant.
5. He could be plain downright lazy.

No. 1 is the easiest, I've used some frontline combo on him.

No 2 is a little more difficult to work out. The vet advised I put him on a venison & potatoe diet for a couple of months (where the hell am I going to get affordable venison?) as venison is considered a hypo allergenic meat! If he responds to that, then we can do a topical test to find out which meats he's intolerant of.

No. 3 could only be ascertained by a CT scan or untrasound, which would require another general anaesthetic. Not too keen on going down that road unless absolutely necessary.

No. 4 - nothing I can do exceot wait for winter!

No. 5 - s*it! what the hell can I do about that?

He sounds in great shape Caryll then all in all. I thought you could see ticks? It may cost a small fourtune feeding venison, are you going to give it a try? The not so little lazy Dempsy, soon to be fed like a king. At least it's nothing serious and your vet sounds great by going through all possiable options. Lets just hope its no;5

Apparently if you're lucky you can see the tick before it's fully gorged. But once it's had its fill it drops off, until it needs to fill up again! Dempsey had one tick a couple of weeks ago that I removed (the first tick I've ever seen on any of my dogs - I suppose I've just been lucky!). But the vet said that they are very difficult to see when they've dropped off. I've used the frontline & I'm washing all his bedding (the vet said there was no need as the frontline will kill any ticks that try to re-attach, but I'm not taking chnaces!), so we'll see.

Eww, vile things well lets hope its not that!

Glad to hear it's nothing serious Caryll

Ticks are nasty little things.....if it was a tick the treatmeant will take care of that. Eeeeeew

As for venison , does that mean we need to call him "Lord Dempsey" from now on? Princely little so-n-so

The heat can knock the best of us about, so I could understand if that was affecting him, but then like you say he may just be getting lazy.

poor demsey

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vension - where on earth do you get that from

Caryll I was listening to a vet on the radio today and he said that goat meat was the latest best thing to feed dogs with allergies or intollerances... but having said that I have no idea if you can get it there and what the price would be... ( we have heaps here I would think as Australia has the highest feral goat population in the world !! )

I think I gunna start coming your for my tea Caryll. Hope he back to full energy soon xx

vanessa wrote:
Caryll I was listening to a vet on the radio today and he said that goat meat was the latest best thing to feed dogs with allergies or intollerances... but having said that I have no idea if you can get it there and what the price would be... ( we have heaps here I would think as Australia has the highest feral goat population in the world !! )

Yay, that's great to hear. Roxy, I hope u like goat coz i'm gonna stock the freezer

yes Lisa I am tempted to try Winston on it too when he is abit older !

caryll you will have to see if you can get the other half on a bus route through a forrest and see what he can bring home lol
if not his diet is going to work at a little deer ha ha pun intended


my guess would probbly be num 5 lol

bigwazza wrote:caryll you will have to see if you can get the other half on a bus route through a forrest and see what he can bring home lol
if not his diet is going to work at a little deer ha ha pun intended


my guess would probbly be num 5 lol

oh deer !!

vanessa wrote:

bigwazza wrote:caryll you will have to see if you can get the other half on a bus route through a forrest and see what he can bring home lol
if not his diet is going to work at a little deer ha ha pun intended


my guess would probbly be num 5 lol

oh deer !!

vanessa wrote:
Caryll I was listening to a vet on the radio today and he said that goat meat was the latest best thing to feed dogs with allergies or intollerances... but having said that I have no idea if you can get it there and what the price would be... ( we have heaps here I would think as Australia has the highest feral goat population in the world !! )

There used to be a butcher fairly near to me that sold all that sort of meat, but I went there earlier & it's shut down! Morrisons sell venison, but I hate to think how much it'd cost. I'll have to see if I can get it frozen on line.

Tracie-Milly-Moos Mum wrote:I think I gunna start coming your for my tea Caryll. Hope he back to full energy soon xx

Don't forget, though, that it won't be cooked! And as I'm a vegetarian I won't be cooking it!

bigwazza wrote:caryll you will have to see if you can get the other half on a bus route through a forrest and see what he can bring home lol
if not his diet is going to work at a little deer ha ha pun intended
my guess would probbly be num 5 lol

Good idea with the bus, but I think they frown at drivers carrying road kill on the bus!

And that's a terrible pun!