The Dirty Dozen to the Vet

A dozen of the Stardancer dogs needed their rabies vaccinations and a bit of other work.  It rained quite a bit last night, so the dog yard was muddy and sloppy.  As a result, our crew for the run to down was dubbed The Dirty Dozen, a.k.a. the Mud Mutts. 

One of my friends asked how in the heck do we deal with a dozen dogs in a single vet visit.  It's actually pretty easy.  We've been dealing with the same vet (Mark May in Fairbanks) for several years, so they already have most of the dogs records.  For those not yet on file, it is easy enough to add their information.

Knowing ahead of time what work is needed makes it pretty easy for Mark and his staff to prepare all the necessary paperwork and supplies.

Trish and I loaded the chosen few more quickly than I had predicted.  Most of our dogs can be safely "loose dropped", just released from their pens or tethers and after a few minutes of dashing wildly about the yard they trot over to the truck, run up the ramp and into the compartment to 'win' the nice tasty snacks inside.  Those not yet trained to do this were fairly easily handled on leash, in spite of their excitement.

The hardest part of the whole experience was backing the trailer and truck into the small space at the back of Mark's building without taking out the chain-link enclosure.  Apparently someone did that long before we showed up.

Most challenging part of the experience was backing the trailer into the tight space between trees and building without tearing down the chain-link fence.

 The 10 dogs needing only rabies vaccinations were really easy.  Mark and Megan brought the necessary supplies outside and we just gave them their shots right at the truck.  We'd open a compartment door, bring out the dog, and practically before his or her feet were on the ground Mark had the site prepped and the injection done.  After all, he has done this a few times before.

Only two dogs needed to go inside.  Thowra needed an identification microchip, which he didn't much care for but tolerated well enough.  At least he didn't try to bite anyone.  Rose got a quick clinical examination before Mark decided we probably did not need to draw blood for a thyroid screen.  She's been hypothyroid since a very young age, but her medication keeps her symptom free and with no clinical signs of change we decided there was no reason to spend money on a test that would most likely indicate she's doing fine.

Total time spent caring for all 12 dogs was only about half an hour.  There wasn't even enough time to capture any 'action' photos.  Heck, it wasn't until afterward that I was able to get any photos at all.  My favorite of those was one of Trish, smiling because everything proceeded so easily.

Easy duty leads to a big, easy smile.

Now we're home, all the dogs have been rotated into new confinement areas.  Those who were on tethers are no in pens with compatible pen mates, and those that were in pens are now on tethers where they play and interact with two or three nearby neighbors.  Everyone seems to have enjoyed their big adventure in the big city of Fairbanks.