For those who don't believe in annual checkups on your dogs--how often do you go to the doctor for an annual checkup on yourself?
Dogs age more quickly than we do. An annual complete examination is more like one every 4 or 5 years for humans. I could never let myself go 4 or 5 years without a complete checkup! So I believe that an annual examination for dogs is essential! It is the minimum I should do for my dogs. I don't know why, but something in my Cavaliers faces just makes me want to treat them more like human children than livestock! Maybe I'm weird or in the minority, but that is how I feel. So all my dogs get an annual complete checkup and all of them have bloodwork done at some point between birth and 4 or 5 years of age because I want to know how they are truly doing. They get a somewhat similar level of care as my children do--on a much more simplistic level--but still a good level of care. I KNOW dogs hide pain and so I want to have them checked out regularly to make sure something isn't amiss. I was at the vet today and I saw a beautiful Mastiff bitch who had had emergency surgery for bloat last night. They were cleaning her up and getting her ready to go home. She stood there so calmly, wagging her tail. There is no doubt in my mind she was in pain. She had had somewhat extensive surgery to save her life and I could see the extensive incision spots and all the sutures. Yet she didn't act like it at all. Not on my life would I look for my dogs to tell me they are in pain--that they have a problem of some sort--as I know they wouldn't unless they were REALLY in pain. Laura Lang Roycroft Cavaliers ========================================================= "Magic Commands": to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL to start it up gain click here: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 2002 by its original author.
