First Vet Visit

Tuesday 2/19/2013

We went to the vet today but weren't able to get Odin up to date on his vaccinations because he has some other issues going on.  We did a fecal test, skin scraping, CBC, and DTM test (we won't get the results of this test until Friday.

His fecal test for parasites was negative and so was his skin scraping for mites.  The DTM tests for ringworm.  He has a spot on his front right toe and a spot on each of his back legs.  The CBC or completed blood count showed a few abnormalities as well.  He has a low hemoglobin (8.8), low hematocrit (25), and a white blood cell count of 15.8.  He also has three enlarged lymph nodes.
Overall we are hoping that his lymph nodes go down, and his hemoglobin goes up.  We're going to feed him some chicken livers, cooked, to help boost his iron.  Hopefully the anemia was caused by intestinal parasites that he finished his treatment with today (he was on pyrantel and febendazole) and the lymph node enlargement is due to his previous vaccinations, stress, and not anything serious. On Monday we'll take him back to the vet to check his lymph nodes, run another CBC, and hopefully if he is doing better we won't need to do a fine needle aspirate of his lymph nodes.

On other news we are feeding him Diamond Large Breed Puppy, clicker training with Bil-Jac, and supplementing chicken, chicken livers, egg, and fish (canned mackerel and salmon).  He is going on shorter walks every day (something Lucy is also thankful for) and we'll keep him mainly tucked safely in the house until we can get his vaccines up to date.  Bought a few toys to help keep him busy in the meantime.

House training is a work in progress.  Even when left for short periods he has accidents in his crate, most likely this is due to being on a wired floor crate (one where the poop/pee falls through the holes onto the floor below), it makes cleaning easier but house training much more difficult.  We are rewarding him for going outside but it is a slow progression.

He is responding well to clicker training but is not as food motivated as most puppies his age.  Hopefully the continued clicker training will increase his motivation and drive so that he picks it up quickly and has fun with training.

I will get a video posted in the next 1-2 days to cover his beginning stages of clicker training.