Last night Happy seemed her usual self, but this morning she looked bad. I took her to the vet, and a radiologist happened to be visiting the clinic. Happy was given an ultrasound and they found that her pancreas was hugely distended and blocking her colon. For some reason, this hadn't shown up in the bloodwork from a few days ago.
Meanwhile, we discovered an incredible amount of vomit throughout the groundfloor of my house. Last night she vomited the accumulated stomach contents of three or four days. So she hasn't processed any of her food or pills.
Now she's in critical care at the Veterinary hospital in Burnaby. She's on fluids, antibiotics and painkillers, and they're considering surgery. It's a serious condition, and it's life-threatening, but she has a good chance of recovery and should be fine. This is exactly what they've told me.
She'll stay in critical care for a couple of days, at least. They did a second ultrasound at around 3pm today, and her gallbladder appeared smaller. I can't remember why a small gallbladder is a good sign, but I'm told that it is. If she continues to improve they'll have ruled out surgery by tomorrow morning. If not, it's still an option.
I saw her at 3pm before I came home, and she seemed okay. But the vets keep telling me how unbelievably stoic she is, so it's hard to tell from looking at her if she's in a lot of pain or not.
Incidentally, that's how she got her name. She was found as a stray in rural Oregon with a shattered hip, which must have hurt like hell, but she was wagging her tail all the way to the vet's, so they called her Happy.
Probably they should have called her Stoic.
Obviously, I'm freaking out, but not as badly as I was after I talked to the solemn Burnaby Vet and phoned Marian, bawling, from the parking lot. I guess I have some sort of faith that my dog will be okay. Like I keep telling myself, the chances are good. She's young.
I'm sorry in advance for canceling on everything I had planned for the next week. This is taking up all of my time/brain.
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9 comments:
Oh Claire. I'm very sorry. I will think happy thoughts for Happy...and you. Big hug.
Claire, I am also sending good thoughts. I'm sure Happy will come through okay. And then you can lavish her with Christmas presents.
Sometimes it takes a while to get to the root of a problem. Happy knows that humans arn't so smart and it would take them a while to figure it out. Now that the humans have figured it out she'll back to life, back to reality, back to the here and now again, in no time. I don't appriciate being laughed at by dogs.
From a science-y note, a reduced gall blatter might mean she's starting pass things through her small intesttine (as the gall-bladder puts digestive juices into the illium (sp?)). Aka she's starting to digest food.
but I heart happy very muchly and she will be okay.
Spooky the pug also had a bad case of pancreatitis and ended up in the hospital on IV. She recovered beautifully from it.
Much love to Happy and you from Juniper, George, Echo, Francesca and myself.
Blogger is the eater of comments, word-destroyer. Lots of hugs and love for Happy and Clairey from Sachi.
I'm praying all the good for you and Happy.
I know how hard it's like for you at this moment, I totally understand...
Now is my time to give all my love and energy to Happy, I'm sure she will be okay.
Love and Hug.
THANK YOU ALL.
Those capital letters are to EMPHASIZE MY GRATITUDE. Not to yell angrily. Just so you know.
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