Gozer's visit to the doctor

Gozer has gained quite a bit of weight quite quickly: over the last four months she's gone from 9.3kg (20.5lbs) to 11.8kg (26.0lb), an increase of more than 25%. When anyone - human or dog - adds 25% to their weight in only a four months, it's cause for some concern. Gozer's walk time has decreased by a third to half of the pre-summer levels due to the hot weather so it's likely that her weight gain is related to her decreased activity. The vet also thinks that Gozer might be a bit older than we had thought - closer to four years old rather than two - because that's when dogs naturally gain weight

The vet thinks that Gozer is a bit chubby but isn't obese and says that Gozer does need to lose weight - but not too quickly. She's going to draw up a chart showing how many calories Gozer needs each day and from there we'll figure out how much to feed her and how much exercise to give her.

While I was there I inadvertently became part of an issue they're having. Way back when, Gozer was given flea medication that we'll need to start giving to her again in December (she's on Trifexis for the summer to protect against other parasites). Unfortunately, the medication expired in August of this year and there's no way that I'll give her expired medication in December. When I took Gozer in for her grooming a couple of weeks ago, I brought the package to the office. They checked and all of this medication was expired; since they had to order more, I took my package home.

After Gozer and I left the groomers, one of the groomers came running out with a new package of medication. When I got home I noticed that the medication was for larger dogs. Gozer is chubby but she's not that big! I brought both packages in with me today and explained what had happened. The vet was very upset because whoever set up the box just reprinted the label and didn't get the vet's signature, meaning the vet didn't know that this had happened - a major violation of protocol. This didn't cause any problems for me or for Gozer but if the staff is doing this kind of thing at other times, some pet could get hurt and that's not good.

We'll get Gozer's ideal calorie intake next week and then we'll be going back to the vet in a couple of months to see how much weight Gozer loses. We'll also need to pick up her flea medication - one that the vet has signed off on!