A name and a trip to the vet...

I didn't think a name was that important because he has no concept of a name anyway.  Although we get along fine with 'Smelly' the sooner he gets a name the sooner he gets used to it.  So, his name is 'Max' and 'Max' went to the vet today.

After some serious biscuit bribery I got him into the car and drove to Hillside Vet in Wynberg.  He was a bit of a celeb in the car park, he got a lot of attention and I got a lot of questions; Where is he from?  What happened to him? Whats that smell?  etc etc.  Unfortunately neither bribery or the confidence from his newly found popularity could get him through the vets door so I had to carry him in.


Max had a skin scrape, was groped and poked for a few minutes, then had an injection. He wasn't thrilled about the situation but handled it like a superstar and was extremely calm and well behaved.

The skin scrape revealed that the Demodex mites are still alive and kicking, so the injection was a treatment of Ivomectin which needs to be repeated in a week.  I also got an Ectomex treatment which I need to bathe him with every 5 days.  The vet said not to expect any massive results in the next week but hopefully in about 2 weeks his skin should start getting better and once his skin has recovered he can start growing fur.  He said that although Max's mange is 'severe' he could have a full, normal, healthy coat of fur in about 4 months.  

His knee keeps popping out of its socket, which sounds unbelievably painful, but apparently not.  They are going to assess his knee in a month or so, and also cut his nuts off.


Otherwise Max is fine, he is much more confident and playful.  Anything left in the garden is 'his' and promptly destroyed (which is how it should be with a puppy).  He also tries take my ankles out with his paws whenever I am walking around the garden, I think the novelty of this will wear off when I face-plant on the patio.

Here is a picture of us playing 'fetch' - sometimes he will fetch it and sometimes it doesn't even register and I have to go fetch it.  The debris in the background is the remnants of the cardboard boxes he trashed.  He also built himself a nest out of an old newspaper...  Whatever keeps him amused...