ExLimey
Cruising the blueline
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2001
- Posts
- 2,707
I get home from work yesterday and my dog is totally freaking out (Not all that unusual) Everything seems normal at first. He comes inside from relieving himself and drinks all the water in his dish (same routine as the last 7 years.) For the next hour he's outside in the pouring rain trying to throw up and digging large holes in the snow!? This is a dog who doesn't even like to get his feet wet and he's soaked to the bone! AND he's getting a noticeably growing belly.
So I call the vet, get the answering service and a return call. She says, "Oh oh". So I drive 40 miles to the vet's office and we take x-rays and try to stick a tube down into his stomach. No luck. I have to leave him there at 9 pm. The vet tells me to go home and get some rest (yeah right) and she'll call once they know something and/or cured him.
Her assistant calls around midnight to say he's out of surgery and the vet will call in a couple of hours when he's awake. Somehow during the day he managed to twist his stomach 180 degrees and blocked both ends. They had to cut him open flip his stomach, perforate his stomach and suck out the contents, and then inflated a catheter (sp?) inside his body cavity to make sure his stomach doesn't flip in the future.
The vet calls about 2:30 am and tells me he's woken up and appears to be very perky (I guess a lot perkier than a 7 year old Lab is supposed to be, but that's his way). He's not out of the woods yet. Since his stomach was flipped all the blood vessels to it were constricted and may have formed clots. He could still throw a clot in the next 24 hours and have a heart attack or stroke and die. My vet doesn't have 24 hour care. Closest one is a four hour drive and she as much admitted that even if someone were there if he threw a clot there isn't really much that can be done.
Anyway I manage to get a couple of hours fitful sleep and then called first thing in the morning. She said he's doing well, EKG is strong and normal, his enzymes and white count are a little off but that's to be expected due to what he's been through. She says I'm welcome to come and see him but he's not to get excited, so I told her it's probably best that I not come then because he will expect to go home with me and have a complete hissy fit if I leave without him, again. I've got to page her tomorrow around noon for an update. He's going to eat something Sunday night and again Monday noon. If he keeps it down with no problems I'll be able to take him (and his lampshade) home after work on Monday.
I'm a wreck. My eyes are sore and I'm tired and cold. Thankfully, a friend needed help with a project today which got my mind off this for 6 hours or so. It's so weird to be home without him. He's never more than 8 inches away from me at any time, he's like my shadow.
So I call the vet, get the answering service and a return call. She says, "Oh oh". So I drive 40 miles to the vet's office and we take x-rays and try to stick a tube down into his stomach. No luck. I have to leave him there at 9 pm. The vet tells me to go home and get some rest (yeah right) and she'll call once they know something and/or cured him.
Her assistant calls around midnight to say he's out of surgery and the vet will call in a couple of hours when he's awake. Somehow during the day he managed to twist his stomach 180 degrees and blocked both ends. They had to cut him open flip his stomach, perforate his stomach and suck out the contents, and then inflated a catheter (sp?) inside his body cavity to make sure his stomach doesn't flip in the future.
The vet calls about 2:30 am and tells me he's woken up and appears to be very perky (I guess a lot perkier than a 7 year old Lab is supposed to be, but that's his way). He's not out of the woods yet. Since his stomach was flipped all the blood vessels to it were constricted and may have formed clots. He could still throw a clot in the next 24 hours and have a heart attack or stroke and die. My vet doesn't have 24 hour care. Closest one is a four hour drive and she as much admitted that even if someone were there if he threw a clot there isn't really much that can be done.
Anyway I manage to get a couple of hours fitful sleep and then called first thing in the morning. She said he's doing well, EKG is strong and normal, his enzymes and white count are a little off but that's to be expected due to what he's been through. She says I'm welcome to come and see him but he's not to get excited, so I told her it's probably best that I not come then because he will expect to go home with me and have a complete hissy fit if I leave without him, again. I've got to page her tomorrow around noon for an update. He's going to eat something Sunday night and again Monday noon. If he keeps it down with no problems I'll be able to take him (and his lampshade) home after work on Monday.
I'm a wreck. My eyes are sore and I'm tired and cold. Thankfully, a friend needed help with a project today which got my mind off this for 6 hours or so. It's so weird to be home without him. He's never more than 8 inches away from me at any time, he's like my shadow.
