diva update

i am mad tired, so this will be a brief outline of the day...today the girls - mom, me and diva - traveled to the Cornell Vet College to their Companion Animal Hospital to have Diva checked out. This place is THE place for animals, with the vet college right there. i was hoping for a diagnosis. i was expecting a cold, clinical experience. i was right and i was wrong...from the moment we walked through the doors, it was a warm, caring, compassionate place, chock full of the best of the best in the veterinary field. more specialists per square exam room. diva felt like the princess she is, and only made 1 complaint (when they sampled a spot in her ear), and otherwise cooperated beautifully. we met with a 4th year student Dr., and then the head of the dermatology dept - a self-described old California hippie, and 46-er (it's an ADK thing). i loved them, i trusted them, and we left with a diagnosis. and a bill that was about $300 smaller than i had anticipated. my regular vet here had gotten her back up about us going there and spent 15 minutes on the phone cranking about it yesterday, but was shocked when i told her i already had an appointment...a miracle - it usually takes weeks to get in and i called yesterday morning and got in today. she said (after a long pause) "really? you must be important. it takes weeks to get an appointment." i responded that i am. diva has 3 different infections going on, and none of them would be helped by the nasty prednisone she had been put on. she was in the weaning off stage, and Dr. Scott at Cornell said that back in the day they never weaned animals off - just stopped the drug - and there were no ill effects. so she is off the prednisone, and has ear drops and we will be giving her plain old zinc to clear up some of the yuk. ok so this was not brief. there were dogs there with cancer and dogs with broken legs and cats and birds with owners with hopeful, worried faces. and we all had the look of people making a great sacrifice to bring our best friends there. i cannot recommend this place of hope and compassion and skill any higher than to say this: i trust them with my love's life. my inner momma bear said "good." and diva has slept and slept and drank and drank and peed and peed for hours since we came home. the drinking/pee-ing cycle should taper as the drug leaves her body. and momma bear should get some sleep. speaking of which......