Oh Freud, Not Again...

First let me start by giving you a little background info on our pooch. When Dave and I moved to Albany we were a little lonely as we didn't know many people so we decided adopting a puppy was in order. So we began by trying to figure out what kind of dog we should adopt. We decided stupidly to get a pure breed golden retriever. They are known for their gentle demeanor and there ease at training.

We looked on craiglist everyday waiting for the perfect golden to come up. A few weeks into our search I found an ad for a four month old retriever pup in need of a quicky adoption and the breeder was only asking 250 for him. Red flag anyone??? Dave and I spoke and decided we would go look at him and if he wasn't exactly what we were looking for we would leave pet-less.

We arrived to find this absolutely gorgeous puppy having diarreah all over the house. So we said where do we sign up? Allegedly Freud had been adopted previously and been returned as the child was "allergic."

Two months after we brought him home, Freud began limping. We took him to an emergency vet and were informed that he had hip dysplasia and would require an expensive surgery and a lengthy recovery. Again we said, where do we sign up?

This was all about a year and a half ago. Freud has many little health quirks (such as vomiting when hungry) but he is relatively healthy. Today, however, we noticed that his ear was leaking. Again we loaded him into the car and brought him to our emergency vet. Turns out he has a "hot spot." He needed to be sedated, have his faced shaved, be on medications for the next week, and wear an elizabethan collar. His second elizabethan collar in a year and a half.

When he came out of the procedure he was so doped up he could barely walk and his eyes were ridiculously droopy. He looked exactly the way he did when leaving the hospital after his hip surgery, only his bald spot was on his face. Here is a picture of our poor little cash drain.