It seems every few years our dog Katy has had a traumatic event. She got hit by a car in 2009, she had a rock lodged in her intestines in 2013, and last month she had to have not one but two surgeries on her neck. I was packing for Jack and Wyatt's birthday trip to Portland and Katy (pictured below) was following me around everywhere I went. Maybe she wasn't feeling well already. We left Saturday evening. *There are graphic pics in this post if you have a weak stomach!* :)
On Tuesday our neighbor Fletch was concerned about her. She didn't seem interested in eating and wasn't acting like herself. He thought she seemed better Wednesday but knew something was definitely wrong by Thursday. She wouldn't even come out of our crawl space. He took her to an after-hours vet and Katy had a 104+ degree temperature and a very large mass on her neck. Her white blood count was just slightly elevated so the vet sent her home with antibiotics. We left Portland around 8 p.m. to make our way home.
Our other neighbor Paulie kept Katy until we got home at 1 a.m. He said that the mass shrunk about half its size in the few hours he had her. But she looked terrible. She didn't wag her tail, she was burning hot and breathing by puffing her cheeks. We have never seen her look that bad. We didn't think she would make it through the night or until our vet opened. Geoff slept on the floor next to her.
Geoff was waiting at the vet before they opened. Katy had a 105 degree fever and he had to carry her from the car. They had to give her oxygen and they drained some fluid from her neck to help her breathe. All the tests came back as an abcess. As soon as they got her temperature down and her oxygen levels up, they did a surgery to drain it. They kept her overnight and called me Friday a.m. and said she did well - her temperature was stable - but she wasn't eating.
The kids and I went to see her and I think all four of us were surprised about how she looked. The kids were downright scared. They had her on the cement floor to keep her temperature down. What you see below is a drainage tube. The kids thought it was a bone. My sister-in-law Amy saw the pic and thought it was a tooth. Looking back at these pics you can see how pink/red her skin is...it was so angry.
Our vet said we had two options: put her on a stronger antibiotic and give her an appetite stimulant and see how she does or take her to a vet specialty hospital in M town (a city 90 minutes from our house). Geoff said to take her to the specialty vet.
This specialty hospital only has vet specialists. They were worried she may have a foreign body like a foxtail. They did an ultrasound on her neck, ran tests such as lyme and everything came back negative. They bumped up her antibiotics and put her back on an IV. They also started the appetite stimulant. I felt so bad leaving her there-especially since it is so far from our house. As the kids and I started our drive home, the vet called us and said she had thrown up. Then I knew it was a good decision to take her there bc there really isn't any after-hours care in our town. I could call this place at 4 a.m. and I could talk to a vet. She stayed there for 6 days!!
Back at home, Bear was living high on the hog while Katy was gone. We were worried Bear would stop eating since Katy was gone so she got a lot of extra attention and pampering. I think Avery had "tucked her in" here. Oh yeah.
We went every other day to visit Katy and I called a lot for updates. Geoff was night flying that week so he went with us on Wednesday. We tried to get her to eat each time and they would let us walk her outside.
She had developed moderate pnemonia as well at some point during all this. They think she could have aspirated some fluid because of how she was breathing. By Thursday, she was ready for "exploratory surgery". They were looking for either cancer, an infected salivary gland, or a foreign body. The main vet we saw and the surgeon both felt it was a foreign body of some sort. The surgeon called us after the surgery and said it didn't look like cancer and it wasn't infected glands. He said they removed abnormal tissue...and they hoped that the foreign body (it could be the size of a splinter at this point) was removed in that tissue. Here is our girl the day after surgery...with a newer, more upgraded drainage tube.
All her tests came back negative for cancer so their diagnosis was either a deep-seated bacterial infection or a foreign body that they hope was removed from the tissue. They were syringe feeding her the entire time she was there. It wasn't until just before Geoff arrived to get her on Saturday that she voluntarily ate a little canned food. She came home super groggy and thin. She had 20+ staples in her neck, a drainage tube and a "grenade".
We came home with so many prescriptions that Geoff had to make a spreadsheet to keep track.
Back at home, Bear was living high on the hog while Katy was gone. We were worried Bear would stop eating since Katy was gone so she got a lot of extra attention and pampering. I think Avery had "tucked her in" here. Oh yeah.
Her neck was still pretty swollen...but the skin not so bright.
She is doing great! One of the best parts was on the Sunday after she came home. I was cutting sweet potatoes to bake for her and when I looked down she was standing next to me in the kitchen and looking at me. I knew she wanted to eat! She ate scrambled eggs, chicken, yogurt, sweet potatoes, Boom Chicka Pop popcorn (she's a big fan) and some vegetables all week. As soon as I added dog food to the people food...she would walk away and leave all of it.
After a couple of weeks of making her food, I started to give her a small bowl of eggs, then give her a small bowl of dog food. Now she is eating the dog food too! It took a full couple of weeks for her to get some strength back and some weight on but now she is eating her food AND Bear's food. And she is stealing food out of the garbage again...and off the table...and we are so happy about it.
Her fur is coming back...I like how it looks like a star. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment