It was surprising we found the UF Small Animal Hospital as Google was limited help and Garmin tried to take us to Tampa! 😂 In the end, Siri got us there! Once there, we signed in thinking we’d meet the vet, you know, business as usual. 🤷♀️
After checkin at the main desk with 6’ plexiglass surrounds, a tech came and put a tag around Robbie’s neck and away he went, Robs back-peddling all the way. We felt awful; didn’t expect that! We were sent back to our truck to await a phone call; COVID19 protocol. Anyway, Nathan called within 20 minutes and asked many questions, plus I’d given him Rob’s complete history file.
Nathan took the info to Dr. Gallagher and they researched together. Half an hour later, the doctor phoned and went over his thoughts 💭 in great detail. He suggested we do a yearly ultrasound on Robbie to keep an eye on his liver to watch for any developing tumors. The ALK Phos liver enzymes can be compromised if the bile ducts slow down. - gallbladder sludge. There is a Scottie “thing” that affects the adrenal glands and is a precursor making them predisposed to liver cancer but, it’s a very slow growing cancer. By doing a yearly ultrasound we could keep on top of it and if anything was seen just have that one lobe removed. The prognosis on that if it came to it, is 4 to 5 years. As Dr. Gallagher said, they usually die of something else. We agreed that an ultrasound would be done, scheduled for 2:45 today. So ...
We took a drive to Michael’s where I stretched my legs for a few minutes and bought some art pencils and a sharpener. (The old 10 cent plastic one was hacking up my pencils!) Next was a stop at Lowes for softener salt ... then Dunkin’ Donuts for coffee.
Back at the UF parking lot we finally got a call ... Robbie had to be sedated for the Ultrasound but ...
there were NO masses - no tumors! Totally breed related was Dr. Gallagher’s findings. What a relief! 😅 We will certainly mark the calendar and have a blood panel and ultrasound done at the UF Hospital next year. It was a long day but much better than going from office to office looking for answers and not having a specialist to review everything. This was the way to go. $529 👍🏻
We picked up Robbie and headed home at 4 o’clock. Fueled up da Dodge for $37 ... should be home by 6:45.
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