Juniper Vet Visit #1

Yesterday Juniper had her first exam to look further into her heartworms and treatment, as well as make sure she is overall healthy and strong enough for the treatment. I had my fingers crossed the whole time, hoping everything would go smoothly, but June is in worse shape than we thought. When I took her from the shelter, it was mandatory that she was spayed. I was weary of this and yesterday the vet confirmed that spaying a dog with heartworms is not the best idea. So, her stitches are infected and she has developed an abdominal infection as well. On top of that, she also has two types of intestinal worms and ear mites. With all of these different things her body is trying to fight, she is not well enough to begin the heartworm treatment. So, this week she started her antibiotics and medicine to try to heal the infections. Her ear mites and intestinal worms will be easier to get rid of, and I'm hoping she will feel much better by next week. For now I need to focus on getting her to eat as much food and protein as possible so that her immune system can become stronger.

As for her heartworms, there are male and female worms with babies. This means they can keep making more worms. She is on a preventative now that will stop new worms from growing. The vet recommended going through a treatment that kills the worms over the course of a year or two. This way she can be active and it won't take so much of a toll on her body.

Her next appointment is on Saturday to see how her abdomen and stitches are doing. I do not have a good estimate on how much all of this is going to cost, but I am guessing I need atleast another $100 dollars just to get her healthy. The good news is that the longer treatment is less expensive, so I am hoping to get her adopted before hand. Then her new owner can begin the process with her. I am going to work on adoption flyers this week, as well as a fundraiser towards the end of the month.

Thanks everyone for the donations, and thank you Pet Vet on Patton!