My Poor Girl
Friday, January 22, 2010
I am sorry that I have been neglectful of my blog of late. I want more than anything to write about my recent trip I took to Orlando and Disney World with the Wayneman. Sadly, my trip was cut short and I had to rush home a few days early because my sweet Cicely dog had to be hospitalized. So, my heart, mind and spirit have only been completely preoccupied with my girl these past few days.
Last Friday (January 15th), I was talking to my dad on the phone after a fun day at Disney World. He was staying at my house dog-sitting for us while we were in Florida. He told me that he thought maybe Cicely wasn’t feeling so good. He said she was really lethargic and seemed depressed and not wanting to eat. For Cicely, when she doesn’t want to eat, you know there’s a problem.
The next morning, the Wayneman and I were at Animal Kingdom waiting for the Finding Nemo show to start when my cell phone rang. My dad called and told me that he was going to rush Cic to emergency because she was really bad off. Of course, my heart sank and panic set in immediately. Here I am on the other side of the country and can’t get to her right away! This felt just AWFUL!
My dad said that Cicely wouldn’t eat that morning and that she wasn’t pooping either. He said she was just laying on my bathroom floor looking miserable. He tried to touch her stomach and it was hard as a rock and she cried when he touched her. Taking her to the ER was the right thing to do.
Now, let me preface this story by giving a little background on Cicely. In 2008, she had about 3 or 4 episodes of unexplained abdominal pain. Of course, they always hit in the middle of the night. She would get out of bed and start pacing around. She would try to lay down but would get up a minute later. She would club me with her front foot or crouch down in a prayer-type position with her butt in the air. Her stomach was super tight. I would rush her to emergency. They would do x-rays to check for blockages. Blood work to check for other stuff. Even an abdominal ultrasound. Everything always came back normal. Total mystery. We put her on a prescription diet. That didn’t really do anything either, so we switched her back to her regular food. The one common factor in each of her pain episodes was that she had eaten grass beforehand. So, we thought that’s what it was.
Since then, we have been very diligent in monitoring her when she is outside and no grass has been eaten. She has not had one of these pain episodes in over a year. Until now.
After I got off the phone with my dad, the Wayneman and I just had to wait. Of course this had to be during the Finding Nemo show when Nemo’s dad is saying and doing everything he can to get to his little Nemo. Well, that pretty much stuck in my craw that it was time for me to go home.
After the show and a million bathroom trips for me (stress - it goes straight to my bladder!), we heard back from my dad and he said that they did all the tests and they showed nothing abnormal. WHAT THE HECK!?!
I called the vet a bit later and she said that they definitely wanted to hospitalize Cic because she was in immense pain and her blood pressure was critically high. In a dog, a normal BP is around 120. Cic’s BP was over 200. They drugged her up on pain meds and she zonked out.
I decided to go home, so I changed my plane ticket and caught a flight out the next morning to get to Cic A.S.A.P. While at the airport the next morning, I called to check on Cic and they said she was doing much better and her BP had come down to normal. THANK GOODNESS!
When I got home, the vet said that she was doing lots better and they would release her that night (Sunday, the 17th).
So, my dad and I went and picked her up. She appeared very out of it. She was super drugged out. We got her home that evening, and put her to bed. She slept great and ate great. I hoped we were out of the woods.
On Monday, I just tried to keep her in her bed most the day to rest. She still wasn’t herself. She was groggy and walking a bit strange on her back legs. Her right eye was all wonky too! Guess that’s what happens to a Basset Hound on drugs!
Comments Widget
My poor girl had her hairy belly all shaved for the ultrasound.
Her poor little feet were really painful too. In the front foot, they put in an IV catheter. I tried to take the bandage off and she growled and cried in pain. It was all bloody, so I had to get the bandage off to clean it. I ended up having to muzzle her to get it off. I noticed it had several needle pokes in it. Looks like they had trouble finding a vein. Dogs feet are SUPER sensitive, so this really hurt her. Poor baby!
My girl mostly just seemed so sad. She was laying on her bed shivering, so I covered her up. I didn’t know what to do for her. As long as she was resting comfortably, I figured that was good.
She got up and moved a bit, then she laid down again. I noticed she was shivering all over. Not because she was cold, but because she was in crazy pain. Every muscle in her little body was tightened. She felt hard as a rock. I took a little video of her in case the vet wanted to see what she was doing. It is hard to tell that she is shivering, but she is. Mostly she looks so miserable. Heartbreaking I tell ya!
After this video, I had her get up so I could get her out of our bedroom to take her to the doctor. She got up and just stood there all stiff and hunched up. She didn’t want to walk. I tried to get her to take a few steps over to me and she wouldn’t move. By this time I am completely FREAKING OUT!
I called my parents and they came over to help me get her in a kennel to take her to the doctor. After standing there for about five minutes, Cicely walked over and laid down on her bed and seemed just fine. She was relaxed and went to sleep.
Total weirdness!!
My parents came over and a bit after 3:00 AM, and my dad and I rushed her to the emergency room. The vet looked her over, and she seemed fine. Her blood pressure was normal, she was relaxed. Nothing abnormal. The ER vet thought that maybe she had a seizure or something. She also wondered about the leg thing too. So, she recommended they hospitalize Cicely again and see if they could get a Neurologist and Orthopedic surgeon consult the next day.
I went back to see my girl before we left and I think my heart broke a hundred times over to see her in that cage and to leave her there again.
My dad and I headed home to wait for the Neuro and Ortho consults.
A few hours later, I got a call from the Neurologist. She told me that Cic looked really good and that she didn’t think she had a seizure. She said that she got Cicely to react to an exam on her spine in the lower lumbar region. So, that was interesting. Other than that, she saw nothing out of the ordinary. She suggested that we do an MRI and maybe a spinal tap to see if there was any injury to the spinal cord. Of course, this would cost around $2,500.
She said she wanted to wait to see what the Ortho consult said and we would talk again later. So, we waited some more.
Later that day, the Neurologist called me again and told me that the Orthopedic surgeon didn’t find anything abnormal in Cicely. Everything looked really good. So, she is leaning toward Cicely having some kind of spinal cord injury and/or sciatica.
She said we could either be aggressive and do the MRI right away or we could try treating it with six weeks of forced, confined bed rest and pain meds to see if it heals on it’s own. Also, for the rest of her life, Cicely is NEVER allowed to do stairs or jump on things. Stairs - no problem, we keep her off those. The jumping will be harder but we can do it.
Since we would have to do bed rest and pain meds with or without the MRI, we decided to go that route first. If she gets bad again, we will do the MRI immediately and take it from there. It could also be surgical if this is, in fact, what is going on with her.
So, after this hugely long story, that I emphatically apologize for, Cicely is back home and completely confined to a kennel. She can only get out to eat, drink, poop and pee. That’s it.
Did I mention that Cicely HATES the kennel? Always has. So this totally sucks in a big way. Six weeks is going to be really tough, I’ll tell ya that right now!
She is also taking a narcotic pain killer (Tramadol) and Diazepam (Valium) so she is nice and drugged out.
The good news is that today is Friday and she hasn’t had any pain episodes since Monday night/Tuesday morning. I don’t know if that is because she has been confined and not moving around or if it’s the drugs.
As long as my girl is resting comfortably, that’s all that matters to me right now.
Monday afternoon, Cicely seemed to be finally getting back to her old self. She even wanted to play with Maggie. Cicely tried to play for a minute and then she just took off running away from Maggie holding her back, right leg up. So, she ran off on three legs. This is definitely not normal! Like I said before, she was also walking a bit weird too. It was an almost imperceptible change in her walk, but it was there. She would hold that same back leg up when she walked outside the back door too. Other than that, she seemed fine. Or so we thought...
That’s when Monday night struck. Before bed, I gave Cic her pain pills. She went to bed nicely and was sleeping soundly. At midnight, she got up from her bed and started pacing again. That’s when my heart sank and I knew we were going again with this pain. I gave her another dose of her pain pill and laid down on the floor with her to rub her tummy. She slept for an hour or so and seemed fine, so I got back into bed.
An hour later, she was up again. This time, she was laying really stiff on the floor next to her bed.
