Last weekend, we took ALL the dogs to a health clinic sponsored by a local dog club. This health clinic is put on every year and coordinated by a local dog person, Carolyn. Carolyn does a WONDERFUL job organizing it! She even forgives me for changing my last-minute registration which I am sure messes up her timing/organization of all the dogs that attend this clinic. (So sorry for having done that, Carolyn!)

Years ago, we piled all the dogs in our “dog van” that we used to go to dog shows when we didn’t take the RV. Knowing we weren’t going to use it much any longer, we sold the van a few years ago. This makes transporting the dogs to this health clinic a bit tricky!

Fortunately, my son agreed to help us “hold dogs” until it was their turn to be seen by the various specialists. In his car, he took one dog in a crate. I drove taking two crated dogs, and dear hubby drove also with crated dogs.

My changes? While Deja and Doodle were recently at my repro vet having blood drawn for progesterone levels, I had them add-on a heartworm test. Now that I know both of them are negative for heartworm, I can start the heartworm preventative I give throughout the summer. Deja and Doodle still needed their eyes tested though.

And then my very old, very sweet Cavalier had a problem with her anal glands. While not planned to do at this time, we went ahead and had her “senior wellness” done for the year. This included a heartworm test so now she no longer needed to go to the health clinic for this test. It also included a dental where my poor baby had yet another tooth pulled. While under anesthesia for her dental cleaning, we had the vet remove a few lumps and bumps. Cali will be back at the vet this Friday having those stitches removed.

Once we all arrived at the clinic held at a local vet office, all the dogs have their eyes dilated for their appointment with the veterinarian ophthalmologist. As they say, “the eyes are the windows to the soul”. Believe it or not, these eye exams can pick up other problems the dog may have. Last year at this health clinic, my beautiful grand-champion boy, Tazo, had retinal bleeds. He passed his eye certification but we were advised to have him seen by our vet sooner than later. At that vet appointment, Tazo was diagnosed to be in renal failure! We “lost” him four months later when his renal failure became apparent; they don’t do dialysis on dogs which is what he would have needed. It was so hard to believe he had such a serious health problem that was diagnosed from an eye exam!

As you can imagine, all the dogs stayed OUT of the sunlight for the rest of the day after having their eyes dilated. The eye forms filled out by the eye doc are then sent to OFA (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals) that adds my dogs to their registry of dogs with eye clearances. This is done every year with Golden Retrievers.

Golden Retrievers also need a heart clearance done by a veterinarian cardiologist. They need to be over a year of age for this health clearance. My sweet “puppy”, Pixel, turned one year last August! Time for her to have her heart checked! That form also filled out by the specialist is also sent off to OFA. Pixel still needs her hips and elbows x-rays to be done but they need to be over two for these permanent clearances. She will have them done this August.

And then there is “Beanie”, my little French Bulldog. Beanie had her eyes dilated and was seen by the ophthalmologist also. Having all the Goldens at this clinic was easy compared to having one French Bulldog! Beanie lunged and barked at every dog coming and going; I can’t begin to tell you how embarrassed I was! In true bulldog fashion, Beanie was “running the show”! Now Beanie has had a LOT of socialization so that wasn’t it. She just wanted to let everyone know she was there! OMGosh! It was hilarious! French Bulldogs also need hip x-rays and patella clearances. And hearts after a year. We’ll go back next year to get the rest of her health clearances when she is older. Fortunately, there were other Frenchies at this health clinic that acted just like Beanie; it MUST be a Frenchie thing?

2018 Health Clinic is now in the books. My forms are all scanned that my dogs were seen by the specialists and soon, I will receive the official forms from OFA that they were health tested this year. I am very grateful that this health clinic is put on annually so my dogs can get their health testing. Thank you, Carolyn!! And thank you to my son for helping “hold dogs” as well as helping to transport dogs to the clinic. While it IS a bit chaotic, to get all the dogs to the clinic, it is so important to do this health testing for each and every dog!