Do all sled dogs hate the vet??

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Hey everyone! Hannah here with this week’s stories. But before we get into a nice throwback story for you, we have some exciting housekeeping notes!

As you see above, we’re excited to share new sponsors to the Urban Mushers newsletter. Not every week will have a sponsored newsletter (even though we’d love to have a full-time sponsor…), but we’re hoping to continue expanding on the sponsorships moving forward.

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It’s another way to gain support for the team/dogs. As you know, we have a premium subscription to our newsletter, but we know not everyone is able and willing to do that. And that’s completely fine!

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So know that by clicking on some of the ads and other newsletters, you’re directly supporting us without having to spend a single penny! Every bit helps as we start gearing up towards dryland season in the fall.

Okay so now we’ve got a good story for you about our super anxious sled dog, Boo, visiting the vet last year. We forgot about this story because it was before we launched the newsletter. But it’s a good one, and relates to what’s happening around the Urban Mushers household this coming week.

Last year around Memorial Day, we took Boo to the vet for the first time in Indiana. The only other time he had been inside a vet office was when he was neutered in Wisconsin.

Let me give you a quick recap of how it went. We showed up for our first appointment. We were there for an hour and Boo was SO DRAMATIC. Screaming, flailing, fighting, you name it. He didn’t get a single vaccine or nail cut during that time. The vet gave us a “care package” of anxiety medication and sent us home.

The following week, we followed the anxiety pill regimen and went back to the vet for another try. I’m not kidding when I say THREE big, strong veterinarians walked in our room and were not going to fail this time around.

They had me slip a leather muzzle over Boo’s mouth for everyone’s safety. I’ve never seen him even attempt to hurt anyone, but it is their standard procedure. They then put a blanket over him, which they say can help calm the dog down. The biggest vet bear hugged boo, while the other two tried to hold him still to draw his blood and give him his annual vaccines.

I put his harness on him because he tends to have more confidence around strangers or in weird situations when in harness. I also packed a lunchbox full of raw chicken.

The vaccines went super quick. They stuck him in the loose skin on the back of his neck. I was like, why didn’t we do that last week?! The techs had previously tried to stick him in the arm in front of his face, which clearly did not go well.

After he successfully got his vaccines, I asked the vet if it was ok if I gave him a chicken treat as a reward. You should’ve seen his face when I pulled out a strip of raw chicken!

After that, it was time for a blood draw. Boo kept fighting the whole time, even though he was high as heck on lots of anxiety drugs. They were finally able to get a blood draw. He was tested for a few things…but one came back positive - Lyme disease.

Not gonna lie…I was freaking out for a minute, and so was the staff. It seemed like it was something they don’t see very often here in Indiana. Which, I’m not surprised. I don’t see too many ticks around here.

I told the vet of a previous encounter Boo had with a tick. Long story short, one year when we were up at Doty, we woke up in the morning and found a large tick on Boo that had clearly bitten him. We obviously freaked out. We didn’t have any tweezers to get the tick out, so we had to improvise. We were able to get it out, and met up with Q a couple hours later to get some medicine for Boo before the races.

The vet insisted on giving Boo a couple rounds of doxycycline to see if that cleared him of the disease if it was from a recent tick bite. If it did not, he said it could be chronic. The vet then requested a full blood panel and a urine sample. So we had to wrestle Boo again for another blood draw.

I asked the vet how he was going to get a urine sample. He chuckled and said, that’s something you get to try! He gave me a little tray to catch the urine in and a cup to put it in for testing.

Before we left, we asked the vet to cut Boo’s nails. We figured they’d be more experienced at it than us, and because of the meds he was on, it would be a good time to try it. I believe they only got four nails cut total because of how crazy and dramatic he was. They charged us $40 for the nail trim and deemed him a level 3 traumatic patient!

Unfortunately, I don’t have any other photos from this day because I was busy wrangling Boo. But how cute is this new line break with the running dog below?!

We went home, hundreds and hundreds of dollars later, and I had to try and collect a urine sample. I nonchalantly/creepishly/awkwardly followed Boo around the yard, waiting for him to pee. Every time he seemed like he was about to pee, he would look at me, and walk away. I finally did get a sample…and may have gotten my hand peed on in the process. Watch it all unfold in this TikTok video lol.

After talking with musher friends in northern Wisconsin where our dogs came from, we learned that a lot of the dogs up there are carriers of Lyme disease or may show positive for it even though they may not display any symptoms. That gave us a sigh of relief. Boo of course did not show any symptoms.

The urine sample came back clean, and the vet said it did not appear that Lyme disease had manifested in any organs or anything like that in Boo and unless he started showing signs, not to worry too much.

Overall, he was given a clean bill of health…he may just be a little nuts lol. As you can imagine, it was not a super fun experience for either us, the vet, or Boo, but some things just have to be done.

As Memorial Day rolled around last week, we knew Boo was once again due for his annual physical and vaccines. We also have had Pence for about 10 months at this point, and we have not taken her to a vet since we’ve had her, so we figured she was also due for a check up and vaccines soon.

Check back next week to see how Boo and Pence do with their annual vaccines this year! The outcome may surprise you…

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