On the backpacking trip in the Ouachita, Henry scored major ticks. We didn’t even think about putting any anti-tick stuff on him because, well, we didn’t think about it. Over the past two days, I have pulled off at least 50 ticks from the little pup, and most of them look like those evil Deer Ticks. Henry also has several fire ant bites too (poor baby).
Tuesday night, after discovering that Henry was a walking tick depository, I scooted to PetSmart and bought a de-ticking shampoo and some anti-itch spray for the little guy. (He’s terrified of the anti-itch spray, but I know it works because he stops gnawing on whatever itches immediately after I spray him.)
Yesterday, after pulling off the 50th tick and seeing that there were still more on him, we determined we’d better suck it up and take him to the vet. These are Deer Ticks, after all, and I can’t bear the thought of my puppy getting a nasty disease.
We dropped him off at 7:30 this morning, and the vet will see him sometime today. I stayed in the car and applied my eye makeup while Joey ran in with Henry. Ten minutes later, he returned…carrying Henry’s collar. I refer to Henry’s collar as his “clothes”, because:
- It’s the only thing he wears
- He loves to wear it
- Without it he looks naked
“They took off his clothes!” Joey said to me, sadly, handing me Henry’s collar. It jingled a little bit in his hand.
“WHAT?” I wailed. Like I said, Henry hates to be without his collar, even though he’s then in Stealth Mode and can sneak around the house at will and we have no idea where he is.
“Yeah, they put on some crappy blue thing when they took him. I didn’t even get to say goodbye,” Joey said.
Melodrama.
“I had to promise him a new toy to get him to go back to the vet,” he continued.
“I’m sure that helped,” I sighed. “Poor Buddy.”
Henry hates the vet. Hates it. I feel awful that he has to stay there all day, too.
I really hope nothing is wrong with him. I wrote an entire page of questions for the poor vet, so hopefully we can avoid this in the future.
