Healthy

I’m not one to go to the doctor unless I have a medical issue, and I’m the same with the animals. They get their vaccines and neutered, and then it’s just ‘as needed’. I don’t do yearly vaccines or anything that would prompt me to bring them in for no particular reason, so they can go a long time without a visit.

There is one thing I don’t screw around with, and that’s teeth. I go to the dentist every 6 months and I try to keep a close eye on everyone’s dental hygiene. This really varies, some animals never need any teeth care – others just lost the genetic lottery and they have crappy teeth. Such as Maine Coons, they have notoriously bad teeth, and, naturally, Dragon is no exception (Fizban’s teeth are fabulous, of course!). Dragon had also been limping, which is very disturbing – I’ve never had a cat limp! But I think he just did something stupid, as it’s been a week and he’s been improving steadily.

We did head into the vet today though, as I made the appointment last week and wanted to get his teeth looked at so he’ll be ready to bring in for his dental at some point. The vet couldn’t find anything concerning that could have been causing the limp, so hopefully that won’t be an issue. Teeth she said are a 1.5 on a 1-5 scale of crappiness. Not an emergency, but should come in sometime in the next year. Dragon actually did way better than I thought he would, he was panting in his kennel on the way there, which is always freaky, but he wasn’t actually overly freaky at the vet and was relaxed on the way home. Go figure.

As long as I was going in with Dragon, I brought Haku as well, as he has quite worn canines at this point – he’s always had soft teeth. I don’t believe Haku has been to a vet since he was neutered when he was 3? Maybe he has, not for anything serious anyway. Vet said his teeth look wonderful other than the worn canines and there is nothing they can do about it anyway. Apparently they can wear them down to nubbins and often not have any issues. So, hey. So no action needed on Haku, he looked fabulous, he loved the vet – such a good dog.

I always feel somewhat extraneous going to the vet, and today was no exception. Haku weighs 38 pounds (same as always), Dragon weighs 18 (which is a LOT when you’re carrying them in a cat carrier …). So that’s our vet excitement for a while, hopefully. Navarre continues to be a good boy, so no immediate plans to neuter his tiny balls. If and when that happens we’ll get his hips checked too, but I have no concerns about his movement.

And, yeah, this vet takes about 25 minutes to get to, but I didn’t like the vet that was 12 minutes away, though in emergency obviously they’d be closer. But I think I’ll stick with the Newberg vet unless there is a pressing need for time. Finding a good vet can be hard to do …