Northeast Boston Terrier Rescue: New Foster Fred

I took Freddie to
the vet with me today and by the time we left, he
was a new dog.

First, he was
given a Capstar tablet to kill the fleas that were
crawling all over him and causing him to bite/itch
himself constantly. Two hours later, I combed him
with a flea comb and we filled an entire table
surface with dead fleas. I purchased him a Seresto
collar which will be good for 8 months of flea,
lice, and tick prevention. I chose to do the collar
because it's very effective and is a lot easier than
trying to remember to give him a monthly tablet.
Wherever he is 8 months from now, his owners can
chose to do monthly prevention.

He ate an entire
bowl of food as soon as we put it in front of him
and within 20 mins, he had his first bowel movement
since I got him last night. Unfortunately, it was
crawling with tapeworms. We gave him a dewormer and
sent out his stool to see if there are any other
worms or parasites that need to be treated.

Then we took some
blood and I elected to run a full test on a
 tick-borne diseases which came back negative. We
tested for heartworm, which also came back negative.
I purchased a 6-month supply of Heartgard for him
and he will get his first dose tomorrow.

The doctor stated
the obvious - he is very skinny. He weighed in at 14
lbs today, so I picked up a good brand of food for
him to get him to put on a few pounds. She also
found that he is anemic. This might be from a
long-term infestation with the fleas, or it could be
an indication of other issues, but we will see how
he does now that the fleas are gone and then go from
there.

Northeast Boston Terrier Rescue: New Foster Fred