Peppermint’s SASH story started way, way back when she was just a puppy (she turned 6 this year!) when we were trying to get to the bottom of a recurring UTI that the local vet just couldn’t resolve.
That’s when we met Dr Bing, who we fell in love with and still feel very grateful for. Bing was meticulous in trying to understand what was going on with Peppermint, and after a number of blood tests and cultures, diet management and many carefully managed doses of anti-biotics, Peppermint improved and was ultimately cured. But that’s only the beginning of our story with SASH, because Peppermint has had many a visit to SASH for a range of issues since then.
She was spayed laparoscopically after her first heat (we thought it might help with her UTIs to wait until then) and at the same time we did X-rays to check on her gait (which seemed a bit much even for a golden retriever!) and discovered she had hip dysplasia. We also took advantage of her being under anesthetic to do a gastropexy and fixed a blocked tear duct she had in her eye (which meant she looked like she was crying) at the same time.
It was so useful to understand what was going on with her hips by using that opportunity, because it means that we are now super strict with her diet because we know that the best thing we can do for her is to keep her fit and lean. Since then, she has also had aspiration pneumonia (I knew something was wrong when she lay on the floor and was panting, wasn’t much interested in food and seemed just not right). She was in the ICU for a few days but we so fortunate that she fully recovered thanks to the expert care (and kindness) of the SASH vets. Peppermint has also had a tear in her ear repaired at SASH after she was bitten at a Christmas Tree Farm by an awful dog with an irresponsible owner. She visited SASH recently when I thought she’d eaten snail pellets from the next door garden and, even more recently, when she suffered an infection after her annual immunisations. So, it’s fair to say that Peppermint and SASH are extremely well acquainted and I always head there whenever I am worried because it makes me feel like everything will be OK. And, so far, it always has been.
