I had to take my poor love bug(aka Stuart) to the vet this afternoon because he's had a goopy & gunky eye for about a month now. It's something that gets better than gets worse again...and it always seemed to be the worst right after we picked him up from boarding. (we've had to board Stu about 3 times over the last month because of various travel/etc) I decided it was time to get it checked out after some self diagnosing from the good 'ole web.
Vet visit was fine - nothing serious, gave me some cream stuff to put in his eye and an anti-itch pill. While the vet was checking out Stu, she listened to his heart and said..."his heart beat is really slow and sounds a little abnormal." Kirsten- "Umm...what?" She took another listen, for longer this time, and indicating his heart rate was 56 beats per minute and was fairly irregular. She indicated dogs, in general, have a heart beat between 90-160 beats depending on the type of dog and the size. She recommended we get him an ultrasound and EKG to check it out further. She said as he gets older he could need a pacemaker depending on the seriousness. Seriously??!!
You'll be surprised to hear that I did not breakdown in tears at the vet...but I did start crying when explaining it all to Mike. Just news I certainly don't want to hear about my bambino. In all Stu's checkups, no one has ever mentioned this(he probably goes to the vet about twice a year) so at this point I'm not going to panic. He's been a little lethargic lately anyway so maybe he was extra relaxed at the vet...I'm going to give his eye time to heal and then see how he's acting.
A pacemaker for a dog? Doesn't that make you laugh out loud a little bit?...in spite of the seriousness of a slow/irregular heart beat.
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