When I left off, Potter was happy to be home on Sunday, June 12th. I was super relieved that he was doing so well. In fact, in true ‘me’ fashion, I kept jumping on him like a not-so-stealthy ninja to give him snuggles and kisses.
He was doing well on Sunday and seemed to be okay Monday morning too. When I got home from work that evening to walk him, he was back to being sick. I tried to stay optimistic, thinking that maybe he just needed to get this out of his system.
Tuesday
On Tuesday morning he started vomiting again during his morning walk. I confined him to the kitchen while I was getting ready for work, and he was sick in there too. I called the animal hospital and they said I needed to bring him back in. Once I got him there, they checked Potter out and decided that he needed to stay there for the day so that they could force fluids and keep an eye on him. After they checked in with me that evening, we decided to leave him at the hospital overnight so that they could keep watching him to see if he got worse again.
Wednesday
He did great at the hospital, so I went to pick him up on Wednesday morning and brought him back home. I had to go into work, so I gave him a kiss and put him in the crate for the day. Since I had an event to attend directly after work, my husband walked and fed Potter when he got home. Unfortunately, he was back to vomiting. I raced home from my event, and Potter was just lying around with his sad face on. He seemed okay though, so we decided to wait and see how he was feeling in the morning.
Thursday
He seemed okay, so I went to work and asked my husband to stop by and check on him when he could. After only two hours, my husband came home to find that Potter had gotten much worse and was sick inside his crate. When I got his call, I raced back home to pick up Potter and rushed back to the animal hospital.
This time when I spoke to the vet, she was getting really concerned that he still wasn’t improving. She suggested that we do an x-ray immediately, which showed that there was *something* in his stomach. She wasn’t sure what it was and it could have just been some undigested food or fluid. She suggested not feeding him anything solid and doing another x-ray later that evening. She also recommended that we do additional blood tests to check for various things. An ultrasound might also be necessary, depending on what they find on the second x-ray.
Of course, I immediately start crying because my first thought is that my dog has a tumor or cancer, or some sort of bleeding ulcer. She had already taken Potter into the back area after the x-ray to get him ready to go back on the IV, but she allowed me to see him before I left. I walked back to where he was caged, trying to hold my tears back so I didn’t freak him out any more. He was so drained and weak that when I reached my hand through the bars, he just looked sadly at me and scooted away. I had a meltdown in the car, afraid that I had just pet him for the last time.
Friday
Throughout the day, I got calls from the animal hospital letting me know that all the tests were normal. They did another x-ray and whatever it was that they saw seemed smaller, so that decided it was just something being digested. The blood test for his pancreas was a bit high, but that could be due to him being sick for the last few days. Just in case, they started Potter on a deworming treatment that should help if he has any parasites. They took him off the IV late that evening and kept an eye on him overnight to see if he would improve or get worse again.
He finally started improving. They don’t know whether it was due to the deworming medication, the IV’s or just that it’s taken this long for whatever it was to get out of his system, but he starts doing better for more than 12 hours. Just in case, they decide to keep him at the hospital until Saturday to make sure that he actually is better this time.
Saturday & Sunday
When I picked him up on Saturday, he was very happy to jump in the car and come home with me. He was a bit tired all day, but ate all of his food and wasn’t sick at all.
Giving him his dose of the deworming treatment was ridiculous, I wrestled him to the ground and shoved the syringe of liquid into his mouth.
Of course, the second I started squeezing it, he moved. I ended up with the medicine everywhere EXCEPT his mouth. The floor. His arm. My arm. His dog tag. My toe. Everywhere.
I was afraid to leave him alone, so I basically just stalked him around the house all day and stared at him as he slept. You should have seen how deliriously happy I was when he went for a walk and everything was finally normal. I’ve never been so excited about poo in my entire life.
On Sunday, he finally started acting like himself again. I had given him a toy the day before that he just nudged around a bit (not normal behavior for my crazy dog). He didn’t even put up a fight when I put the toy on his back to ride him around like a little furry horse. By Sunday night he had returned back to normal and completely destroyed the toy by ripping it open and pulling the stuffing out. This morning when I fed him, he was back to having his tap dancing ‘happy feet’ while waiting for the food bowl to be placed on the floor. His only sign that he’s not totally recovered is that he doesn’t have the energy to jump up onto our bed. I’m super hopeful that my little guy will get there soon!
I’m finally feeling a little bit of relief that this is past us, even though I’m still paranoid that he’s going to get sick again. I have been on an emotional rollercoaster for the past week and my body feels like I lost a fight with someone fierce.
I have to take a moment to recommend the staff at the Anne Arundel Veterinary Emergency Clinic. They truly made this experience much better then it could have been. I probably saw five different veterinarians in the week that we were in and out of the hospital. Every single one of them, as well as the ladies at the front desk, was professional and compassionate. They were great at providing me with updates twice a day (or even more) and recommending what was actually best for my dog, rather than what would bring them in the most money. I really feel like they cared about my dog and were happy for him when he finally gave a doggie ‘smile’ and went home. They also get major bonus points for putting up with me when I broke down in sobs on multiple occasions.
Glad the little fella’s doing okay!