Our last visit to the vet provided great news. This blood test shows no presence of heartworms in his blood. Our baby boy is cured!
Of course, we stopped by Tim Horton’s on the way home to celebrate with a couple Timbits for Bruce and a cup of coffee for his Mama. Bruce doesn’t realize those will probably be his last Timbits for a while. His weight at the vet was 22.4 pounds. Before we started the heartworm treatment, he was 19.5 pounds. Three months of steroids added three pounds to his weight. Now that he’s done with activity restrictions, Bruce will be going for a nice long walk every day to help burn off those extra pounds.
This also means the front window can be uncovered since Bruce can jump up and down and bark to his heart’s content at the UPS truck when it drives past the house. He really missed being able to yell at the squirrels on the front lawn.
Gidget may be happier about the window being uncovered than Bruce is. She likes to bark at what she can see, but she also likes to nap in the sunbeams that stream through the window in the late afternoon.
We asked the vet to look at Bruce’s little red feet, and he prescribed Apoquel to help with his allergies. It is working quite well, and a downy fuzz is growing back on his paws. Apoquel is a fairly new drug and there are no generics available, so it is quite pricey. Hopefully, Bruce will only need it during the fall when his allergies flare.
Now that he’s back to his happy, healthy self, Bruce will be snacking on carrots and chasing the ball to his heart’s content. He has returned to his post in the front window to resume his daily harassment of squirrels and delivery drivers.
Dawn Levitt, Author 