Dexter and Medical Tourism

We have a small dog. He is a chihuahua mix and has an interesting backstory. He is a rescue who took us to his previous handler, often when he was first adopted. I mean the handler part. Dexter is a retired Coast Guard dog who was medically retired. He has a nasty case of atopic dermatitis.

He redirected his training for bomb and drug detection to alerting when my sugars drop. So he is a state-certified service dog.

But he has something else. A week after we adopted him, we ended up at the doggie ER with a dog who was screaming, seemingly in pain. He scared us. He also had a nasty skin infection.

At the time, the ER doc even mentioned the dreaded C word. At the height of the pandemic, I took him to the local doggie neurologist, and at the time I was told he had disk disease. The medical history was superficial. Perhaps because it was during the pandemic, we could not see them in person. And he had some lumbar pain.

I just felt something was off.

He had been treated before the pandemic for his skin issues. His dermatologist went out of her way to always do an in-depth review; for the most part, his AD is mostly under control. Yes, special food, meds, and nightly medicated baths. He is a mostly a happy dog. No, it’s not cheap to treat, but we can afford it.