As much as I wanted to sleep in this morning I was up bright and early to take Bubba to the vet. We have two very wonderful vets at Foxnest Veterinary Hospital. I recommend them to anyone who lives in Upstate, SC. We’ve switched vet’s almost 2 years ago, and I couldn’t be happier with our decision.

I noticed a couple days ago when Bubba would lay down on his blanket he’d leave a little yellow spot of goo. I knew exactly what that was, and I knew it was time to get his anal glands expressed. That’s one of those things I’d rather leave up to the vet to take care of if ya know what I mean especially since yellow is a sign of infection.

Being that he’s a very hyperactive bulldog, we plan all vet trips on Saturdays if possible so Hubby can be there to assist me. We’ve been in and out of the vet’s office so much in the last year and 10 months due to Bubba’s skin problems that we’ve pretty much got a stand in spot as the first patient of the day before the office gets filled with other patients. In the past we’ve had to keep him outside because he’s so hyper.

I think this morning’s trip was the easiest one we’ve had. I swear he knew we were headed to the Vet because he was raring to go. As soon as I hooked him up on his leash and opened the door he took off in a full run for the truck. Hubby had the door open, so he jumped in and plopped down in the backseat in his usual spot. Bubba is really great in the car, but most of the time I have to wrestle with him to get him in the backseat.

Maybe it’s because he’s getting older and calming down, but we were in and out of there in 15 minutes. One other dog came in at the same time, but it was a nice pug that had no problem letting Bubba sniff around. They hung out together in the waiting room for about 5 minutes, and we all laughed because when it was time for Bubba to get on the scale the pug wanted to sit on the scale with him. It was rather cute, so one of the office assistants had to take a photo of them to put on their photo wall. She’s going to email me the picture.

He’s 68.7 lbs, and Dr. Ross said we can also expect another growth spurt at this age, so we shouldn’t worry if he gains a few more pounds. He’s gained roughly 2 lbs in the last 6 months. He’s definitely on the larger side for a bulldog, but he’s healthy and at a good weight. I was beginning to worry that he might need to lose a few pounds knowing he weighs more than most other bulldogs I’ve seen. Also the other vet, Dr. Dunagin, told us at his last checkup that he may need to start on a diet. Apparently Dr. Ross doesn’t seem to agree, and he’s the one with 25+ years experience, so I trust him more. Dr. Dunagin is a great vet, but he’s young and still learning.

Anyway, I was right about infection in his anal glands. That also explains why we’ve had more problems with his skin and ears this week. The first sign his immune system is low due to infection somewhere is mange spots. He had a couple small ones pop up on his left front leg earlier in the week, the first one’s we’ve seen since November. His ears also went haywire this week. We’re on a nightly Zymox Medicated Rinse treatment (Amazon has it for $10, vet sells it for $18) for ear and skin infections because he’s so prone to them, but this week I haven’t been able to control it. Now he’s got a full blown bilateral ear infection which might sound bad, but we’re pretty used to it. I have to treat with Zymox Otic With 1.0% Hydrocortisone twice a day for a week, and then he’s got to take Tetracycline twice a day for that and the infected anal glands.

Other than that he’s a happy and healthy bulldog.

Alley is about a month away from his next set of shots, so I almost went ahead and took him with me today. I changed my mind when I remembered Bubba’s next shots are coming up in September, so Alley dodged the bullet this morning. He doesn’t do nearly as well as Bubba at the vet, so the next trip won’t be so easy.