It’s kind of ironic that at the same time I was writing about the health benefits of having pets, my own pets were indirectly responsible for me becoming very ill.

When I took the pup to the vet to get fixed, they found a spot of mange on the tip of his ear, so rather than losing his manhood, he and Murry both ended up getting dipped. When I picked them up, they were both still dripping wet. My car got soaked. I got soaked. I’d been given no warnings about handling the dogs after the dipping, so I didn’t think twice about allowing them in my bed as usual, where one sleeps against me and the other one on me.

Because I’d so recently gone through the trouble with my eyes, when I started having trouble again, I figured the medicine wasn’t working. Then I got the worst migraine of my life. My equilibrium was shot. I was nauseated. Felt drugged. My doctor said she felt like she was missing something, but it never occurred to me to mention the dog dip. She referred me to a neurologist.

It wasn’t until we went to a different vet on Saturday that we figured out what was wrong. Fortunately, it’s not something that will cause permanent damage, but it is almost certainly what made me sick. Kind of strange being diagnosed by a vet, but also strangely appropriate, don’t you think?

I really like our new vet, Dr. Mankin in Winfield. I’m totally impressed — not just with him, but with everyone in his office. That’s an animal-loving bunch if ever there was one. It’s kind of a quirky office with their one-eyed thieving yellow cat, a three-legged pup, and a few somewhat surly cats from the Putnam shelter that are available for adoption there. It felt right.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 10th, 2006 at 12:20 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.