I was home sick. When he came through the doore, he was happy to be home. Eddie commented on the fact that it was odd that he cried when he jumped out of Eddie's truck, but other than that, he seemed ok. Within just an hour, he became listless. He wouldn't lay down and he was walking around the house whining. We just let him be that evening as he is always a little bit off when he comes home from being boarded. I think he scratches so his feet are usually a little bit tender, and he is always hoarse from barking. I had seen a few spots of blood through the house, but with him just coming home and having been groomed, I attributed it to perhaps a nail being cut too short and let it go.
Tuesday morning, I was still stick and stayed home from work. The dog was still listless and had begun walking around the house in a strange manner. His back was hunched up, his butt down, with his head drooping. He was panting hard, walking very stiff-legged and taking tiny steps. He would not stop, lay down, nor rest, and quite literally, from the time I woke up that morning until about 2:00 in the afternoon, he would not stay still. Upset that he wasn't resting, I tried to get him to lay down. He would sit, but when attempting to lay down, he would cry out and stand back up. Immediately I went to the computer to see what I could see regarding the symptoms he was having.
The first thing I came to was spinal trauma. I went back to my dog and ran my fingers along his back, slowly and carefully, watching for any indications of pain. There were none. Back to the computer I went. The second thing I came to was abdominal pains. I moved back to Ruger and immediately upon touching his belly, he cried out. BOOM! I called the vet immediately and scheduled him an appointment for that afternoon. It was literally one of the longest hours I have spent, waiting for the time to pass so I could get him up there.
The doctor looked him over and wanted me to leave him with her. She called me later indicating that she had found his platelets to be in the 65k range...whatever was going on his body was rejecting platelets and in conjunction with the blood that was in his stool, he was likely bleeding internally. When I picked him up later that evening, he was still in a great deal of pain, though now on medication, and we began treating symptomatically for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, intestinal bleeding, rat poison, and general pain management. She wanted to see him again in the morning, but didn't want to keep him over night as there was no one to keep an eye on him.
I took him and my heart was breaking. I have never seen my dog this sick before. For those of you that have children and like to say that it's different when you have a child...please understand that this is my child. He was sick all night long. He could not get comfortable. He wandered the house all night. I made chicken and rice for him because I wanted to make sure that he was eating, and he wanted little of that. I didn't get all of his meds into him, but I tried as best I could.
Wednesday morning, I brought him back. I was home, once again still sick myself and certainly not wanting to leave my dog. It took everything that I had to get him up off of the floor, and there was little change in him. The doctor was reluctant to stick him too much due to the low platelet count...she didn't want to cause him to bleed. She consulted with other phsyicians, sent them the xrays and enlisted their advice. We could not pinpoint where this was coming from. My vet wanted me to see a specialist and get an ultrasound of Rugs...but unfortunately, I simply could not afford it. I was told it would be about $1500 just to walk through the door there, and between still trying to pay off the $1000 I spent on their teeth and shots recently, and the large bill I was accruing here, I couldn't do it. Not to mention, we had just come back from vacation. We decided to treat symptomatically for the time, while I silently resolved that if we couldn't find the source of this, that I would take out the last of my savings and I would do the best that I could at trying to get the ultrasound done.
She closed at noon that day, but sent Ruger home with me along with some additional medications. We were now treating wtih Sulfalcrate for the intestinal bleeding, Vit K for rat poison, Doxycycline for tickborne issues, predinisone, and Cervacic (spelling probably wrong) for vomiting, (he wasn't vomiting, but she said it would help his tummy). She sent home some Tramadol for his pain as well and wanted to see him again in the morning.
Wednesday night went on forever. At one point, in pilling the dog, I accidently knocked him over. When he was down on the floor, he just decided that it was time to rest. He didn't even try to get up (again, I think it was the act of laying down that hurt him so badly). He stayed down for most of the afternoon, and got up when I coaxed him to. After that, he wouldn't lay down again and continued the listless pacing and panting. Later in the evening, after I had fed him (he barely ate anything and once again, I'm not sure he got all of his meds down). I helped him roll over onto his side so he wouldn't have to go through the motions of laying down, and he stayed there all night. For the first time that week, he didn't wake me up with the restless pacing and panting. In fact, when I awoke to the realization of it around 4:00 am, it took me ten minutes to work up the courage to go out and check on him for fear that I would find him where I left him, dead. You see, prior to us going to bed that night, his breathing was SO labored, I truly feared he was dying.
I finally worked up the nerve to go and check on him, and much to my relief, he was sleeping and breathing was a whole lot better. Not great...but better. I went back to bed.
An hour later he woke me up and wanted to go outside. He had finally pooped the night before and while his stool was no longer formed, it wasn't black any more which is an indication that it was clear of blood. I let him out, medicated him for pain and went back to bed again.
Thursday morning, I got up, gave him his morning medication regime and got a little bit of food into his belly. My fear was that I would make him nauseous by giving him so many different medications, even though I was doing my best to spread them out. He ate most of it and again, got most of his meds into him. He seemed a little bit better after having finally gotten some sleep the night before, though the longer he was up and moving around, the more he seemed to start hurting again. I had noticed a few little spots of blood around the house, but could not tell where they were coming from. I quickly went over the dog, not wanting to trouble him too much, and guessed that it was either in his saliva, or perhaps mixed with urine and maybe just dripping from his parts.
I dropped him off at the doc's office on the way into work. He was still having a hard time unloading from the vehicles, and with Eddie's truck being so high, I didn't want him to hurt himself getting out of it. So, in my car he went. The doc was rechecking his blood levels and keeping an eye on him. We made the decision to leave him there for the day since I was going in to work. He actually jumped up into the care, which surprised the hell out of both Eddie and I. I had made a list for the doc of his behaviors and accomplishments since seeing him last, indicating the blood I had seen.
The doc noticed his slight improvement. He wasn't holding his head down so much and she could touch his abdomen without him crying out in pain. Baby steps, but I'll take them!
I got a call from her just prior to lunch. She used the word "perfect" when discussing his blood chemistry and stated that his platelets had pulled up from 65k to 106k, a really good incline and out of the super scary zone. Then she told me that they noticed a bit of blood on his blanket. She pulled him out of the cage and went over him with a fine tooth comb. She described her finding to me as her experience led her, and told me of the severe burns she found on the very tip of his nubby little tail and all underneath of it.
Another phone call a couple of hours later revealed two more spots, this time on his hocks. Ironically, all of the places that touch the ground when he sits. These burns are severe, very painful and dripping blood. Her best guess is that at some point, he was seated in some type of chemical. Why it isn't on the bottom of his feet, I can't say. But also that he could have licked at himself and possibly ingested some of whatever did this, causing the internal distress.
I can not even begin to describe the sheer rage that filled my heart, thinking I left him at a facility that could allow this to happen to him. He was fine when we dropped him off...and now this?
She treated these wounds, kept him on his pain meds and sent me another photo a bit later to show me that he was actually laying with his chest down, all four feet on the floor and seemed to be reasonably comfortable. He was eating throughout the day. We have added an antibiotic to his regime along with some burn cream. He slept throught he night. He ate well when I fed him last night. I had to coax him up with some food this morning, but aside from waking me up once to go out, he did really well last night. He even almost slept in the room with us, which is the first time that's happened since we left.
I had to clean up a substantial amount of urine from the kitchen floor this morning, but the dog is drinking water like it's going out of style. I had to coax him up off of the floor with the promise of chicken, but he ate breakfast and actually got ALL of his meds into him this morning. He seems improved, but he has a long way to go. I'm cautiously optimistic.
I don't think I'll ever know what happened to my dog. I want to rage out on the facility where he was, and we are currently discussing legal options. I want my dog healthy and happy, like he was before. Pray for him...I know I certainly am.
