maggie dog

oh what a silly day. started well, no complaints. maggie my beagle has been coughing a bit. i recall it's onset as about 3 weeks ago, happening after a big drink of water. i thought she might be aspirating a bit, she's 9 years old, and some older folks aspirate due to muscle weakness. well, last night the dog coughed and hacked so loudly, i woke up. got nervous, because she was in her bed and not drinking anything. so this morning she coughed and hacked and spewed some saliva, so i took her to the vet. well, of course, her shots were over due by 2 months, and they don't have a record of her heartworm med sales, and of course she has a heart murmur per the last visit's records. i enquired, did you do blood work to determine a bacterial infection? uh, no ma'am. i said, please check that first. then call me and scare me about dental work, x-rays, CT scans and the like. another call later with more dialogue about her heart murmur, i asked, well, did you do the bloodwork yet? no ma'am. i said, i'll pick her up at 3, do the bloody blood work please to see if she has an infection. sheesh. got there, no heartworm, heck, she didn't even cough while she was there, silly beagle. they did 5 x-rays, lotsa bloodwork, (NO INFECTION OR HEARTWORM,YAY!) and a 'senior' physical. $280. I about fell over. I get out of the doctors for less than that with some kind of procedure! They did diagnose her with an enlarged heart. i said, compared to what? we don't have any other x-rays as a baseline. do we have x-rays of other 9 year old beagle's hearts? nope. so, i said, she's been fine for her entire life. if she starts exhibiting symptoms of heart trouble, i'll call. i promised. anyhoo. the silly beagle has not coughed since i picked her up. maybe just being at the vet prompted some healing. poor pup, she really gave it to me when i picked her up. she ran to me, looked at me for a second or two, then started wailing about all of the rotten things that happened to her. i knew just what she was telling me, too. my poor mags. she's fine and dandy now. off to bed.
peace, love, and painlessness