Oops, nearly killed my dog.
I forgot to report about how I nearly killed poor Reagan. So I will now.
We had the sprinkler on because here in Houston it's been approximately a thousand degrees for the past few weeks and we've had approximately negative 10 inches rain. We usually let the dogs play in it while water. Reagan and Didi like to dance in the water and bite at the nozzles.
So we sat outside for about 30 minutes and then it was dinner time. We decided to leave the dogs outside to keep playing while we had dinner. Then we went outside again. I saw a splat of water on the porch. I was like, oh, someone drank too much water and puked it up. Rinsed it away. No problem.
Then Reagan came by and puked again. Gave him some pettings, rinsed the porch again.
Then he puked again. And again. And then again. Eventually he went and laid in the corner, retching occasionally until he brought up a bunch of frothy bile. That's when my mom and I gave him a thorough looking over, which he was uncharacteristically docile for. He was really pale and panting hard and drooling gobs. Mom posited that he might have eaten something odd while we were in and I countered with the possibility of bloat from drinking tons of water and running around like a mad dog. Since either way he needed to see a vet, we packed him in the car for a harrowing drive to the ER vet. Mom drove and I sat in the back with puppy, fanning him while he drooled all over and belched pathetically.
I must say I've never seen a dog look so sick. He had that far away look that I've only seen in animals in labor, he wouldn't respond to words or pettings. I didn't know that a dog could look pale, but he managed.
At the vet the receptionist said, "What a pretty dog!" which made me look at her bizarre because his chest was drenched in drool and vomit chunks and I was holding him because he refused to get up, his ears were flopping around like he couldn't be fussed with controlling them and he wouldn't open his eyes. I wonder what most dogs look like when they go there?
While we were signing in someone ran out of the ER crying and the receptionist called out "Do you want your cat back!?". The way she said it made it pretty obvious that the cat in question had downgraded from animate to inanimate. That bodes well, doesn't it?(This part is, unfortunately, not a joke. Someone's pet really did die while we were there and the receptionist really did respond in this way, leading me to believe that Animal ERs and Human ERs have similar curves away from basic compassion as the need to cope well with tragedy exceeds the desire to act like a human-freaking-being.)
Then the most frusterating part. Having the parade of people coming in to examine the dog asking the same thing about your dog. "What's wrong with him?"
The main reason this is frusterating is because if you know your dog, you know what's wrong but it's not easy to put into words. Sure you can say lethargy, drooling, vomitting, etc, but it doesn't evince the urgency you feel when a being that is familiar to you is in distress. It was everything I could do not to flap my arm toward the dog and say "LOOK AT HIM!" Because to me, his face and his body language evinced extreme distress. To others it evinced a sleepy and drooly dog.
X-rays and 300$ later, it turns out both me and mom were wrong. His problem was extreme nausea and pain caused by swallowing a ton of air and water. During his X-ray he offloaded some watery poo and some foul gas in the back, which is awesome, which cost me an extra 10 dollars in hazardous waste disposal which is not awesome.(<- this is a joke! 15$ was the real fee and i assume it was for shots and i don't know.. glove fees. Whatever they spend their disposal change on!)
He got some awesome nausea medications and pictures of his insides and orders to take it easy and walk gently and expect mucho farts.
He has survived! He farted all night though. YUCK!
Comment
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Comment by Elizabeth, Hermione and Luna on June 15, 2011 at 9:33pm
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that was extremely well narrated, and all's well that ends well (except for that poor owner of the kitty who went over the bridge.)
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Comment by Rachael & Waffle on June 15, 2011 at 11:59am
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I'm glad he is alright! Who knew the sprinkler could cause such a serious illness? More reason to KILL THEM ALL. Muahahaha.
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Comment by Bev Levy on June 15, 2011 at 8:26am
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So glad he is alright! You may want to see if there is a better vet by you unless this was an unusual happening. When I have lost one of my furry babies my vet offers a different exit so you can exit without seeing everyone in the waiting room, sends a bill later and a condolence card. We used to get flowers but they have grown over the years to a much bigger clinic so probably could no longer afford it. It is amazing the little stinker managed to swallow so much water!
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Comment by Elizabeth Cassar on June 14, 2011 at 10:19pm
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Sarah, you poor thing. And poor Reagan! As Ellen says though, what a well told story. So glad to hear all ended well (except for the state of your wallet!).
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Comment by Natalie, Lance &Tucker on June 14, 2011 at 10:06pm
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glad to hear it turned out ok. phew!
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Comment by Ellen Andersen on June 14, 2011 at 10:00pm
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Sarah, I'm so sorry you and your Mom and your pup had to go through all that but (shame on me) you had me laughing so hard....not because of your subject but how you wrote it! What a great story! I'm so glad it worked out in the end (ha ha), though. And I find it horrible that the ER place charged $15 for disposal fees? A dollar or two, sure (ya, ya need to put the needle in a sharps box...ok, but $15???? They charge per paper towel??).
I'm so glad Reagan pooted his way back to health!
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Comment by Gail and Ashton on June 14, 2011 at 9:48pm
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I hope your baby gets better soon! We are sending good corgi vibes your way. To chime in about the hazardous waste thing, my guess it is for the X-ray fluids. Some clinics just figure the charge in with the procedure while others itemize every single item (x-ray films, processing, sedation (if necessary), chemicals, etc..). The only other times I can think of that charge coming into play is if there is chemo drugs involved or possibly a highly infectious disease (ie rabies testing).
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Comment by John Wolff on June 14, 2011 at 9:45pm
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Interesting, because Gwynnie's all-time favorite prey is the hose. She will bite the water stream from the nozzle ad infinauseum. I guess she never swallows much water.
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Comment by Sarah C. on June 14, 2011 at 8:05pm
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Lol. I realized my little joke looked serious. No they didn't charge for poop clean up. My mom and I make jokes for oddly specific charges. When we saw 15$ on the biohazard disposal we were like "Is that 5 for the shots and 10 for the poop, or 10 for the poop and 5 for the shots?"
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Comment by Melissa and Franklin! on June 14, 2011 at 7:48pm
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and just a p.s., vomit and feces get thrown out with the regular trash unless its contaminated with parasites, so to charge for "hazardous waste" is ridiculous. Maybe that fee was for the x-rays? Many vets who don't have digital will charge to dispose of the x-ray processor fluids
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