Cocoa goes to the vet

Cocoa's had an ear infection for the past few weeks. It sounds worse than it is. Mostly she's just been flapping her ears and scratching at them. We've been treating her ourselves here at home but since the problem hasn't resolved itself we finally brought her in to the vet. For the first time since we adopted her.

We lined the backseat of the car with our old airbed, and kept the windows closed so she wouldn't try to hang her head out the window. Previous experience has taught us that when she does this she will also place her paws on the windowsill, scratching the paint through the clearcoat.

She was exceedingly well-behaved throughout the visit, whimpering slightly only when the doctor's otoscope probed a little too deeply into her infected ear. For the most part she was friendly, curious and agreeable. We learned that she:

- weighs 68 lbs.
- has an ear infection.
- does not have heartworm, or any other worms for that matter.
- isn't particularly photogenic.
- needs her ears cleaned daily till the infection-related excess wax production stops, then 2 to 3 times weekly thereafter.
- just needs a newfangled drinking water additive to keep her teeth clean and plaque-free.

$261 for shots, checkup, treatment and 4 meds. And a doggie treat.