Must you visit the vet EVERY month?

I am convinced that this dog believes his life is not complete unless he visits a vet every month. So far, we've seen Dr. M, Dr. S. and others at least once a month (except maybe in January - but if I look hard enough I'm sure I can find a record of a visit there too. In December, he visited the vet I volunteered for as a young teen - conjunctivitis. In July, it was a little more dramatic. The note I sent out on July 5th tells the story pretty well.

We are in Arkansas visiting Mike's parents.

Some time around 10-15 years ago, they put a box of D-Con rat poison in one of the closets. Dash found it last night. Fortunately I caught him in the act and we rushed him to the emergency clinic where the induced vomiting, gave him the antidote, and
charcoaled him. He will be on vitamin K tablets for the next 4-6 weeks. The vet does not think he absorbed much if any into his system as we got him treated so quickly that the granules he puked up were pretty much whole.

We went through the entire range of what-ifs last night (what if Gus had found it as an infant, or my neice when she came to visit, or Java & Bixter over the past years that they've visited). Trust the walking vet-bill to do so.

He is playing happily with his new Giggly Frog, like nothing happened. He charged out of the ER last night with not a care in the world in spite of being tubed with the charcoal and being made to puke up a perfectly lovely (well rather hideous) late night snack.

A couple weeks ago there was a sad story circulated online about a show dog(s) who
found rat poison under a hotel room bed at the "dog show" hotel. Sadly, it is not just hotels that we need to be careful about. We've done a whole house search to make sure that there are no other finds awaiting him. And the stupid/scary thing is, my back was turned on him for less than two minutes when he got into that closet.

There are no long-term effects expected. We do have to do a blood test at the end of the month to make sure that he is clotting correctly (otherwise we extend the vitamin K). His energy, personality, persistance, etc. are unaffected. Though he was
pretty pissed off with me about the hydrogen peroxide we used to try to get him
to throw up... he has forgiven me.

I took the precaution of letting Dash know that he didn't need to go out of his way to find a vet in TN, as we were staying with friends on the trip to and from Arkansas - and she is a vet. Tomorrow, we will have our August appointment - a follow-up to July.

Please be vigilant about using poisons around pets and children. This forgotten box nearly resulted in a serious tragedy.