Doggie Drama

So, you may already know that a couple of weeks ago Dad was working in my back yard and left the gate open and their dog Asia and my dog Logan got out and had themselves a little adventure. They crossed not one, not two, but four major busy streets and wound up at Reservoir Park, where Asia decided to take a little dip in the cement pond and couldn't get out. Animal Care and Control was called about a "dog drowning in the pond" and she was rescued, but no sign of Logan. Finally, after Mom, Dad, and I driving around for an hour looking for them, Dad returned to his home to find Logan sitting on their front porch (crossing three major busy streets to get back from the park). A very wet and stinky Asia was liberated from Animal Care and Control and we told the dogs they could not have any more adventures for a few years.

Last weekend Mom and I went to visit my Great Aunt and Uncle in Michigan and up into Canada to see a play at the Stratford Festival. Logan was boarded. When we got home, I had a doctor's appointment and Mom picked up Logan from the vet's office and brought him home. Mom and I were out front with the dogs planting tulip bulbs and Logan started to have dry heaves. I took him inside and noticed his sides along his rib cage were really distended.

I called the vet's office and while I was on hold, Logan started panting like he was hurting or having trouble breathing, so I decided I was taking him in right then. The vet called me on my way there and asked for the symptoms again and when I told her she said it sounded like he might have a twisted stomach. Apparently in large breed dogs (and I have always considered Logan to be medium-sized), if they get overly excited (like spending a weekend barking and then coming home from boarding and jumping and running and being crazy) or eat too quickly, they can take in too much air and their stomachs will twist over on themselves. Sounds gruesome and it is - it catches the spleen in there and it does not untwist on its own, but requires surgery. It can be fatal, and sometimes the spleen and part of the stomach has to be removed.

When I got to the vet's office she immediately took him back for x-rays and confirmed that was the problem. So I took him to the emergency animal hospital for emergency surgery. That was Monday.

The indications are that I caught it right away, because they did not have to remove his spleen or any of his tummy. While at the hospital, his vitals were good but his blood was not clotting very quickly and he was having some bleeding issues so they had to give him plasma to help his clotting times. His platelets were also low. However, he did finally start to eat a bit and once hey moved him from a cage to a run, his attitude relaxed and he started to improve.

I got to bring him home on Thursday. Poor little guy. He's on four different medications - something to help coat his tummy, something to fight indigestion, an antibiotic, and a painkiller. He has 22 staples down his tummy on the outside, and on the inside he has had his stomach stapled to the abdominal wall so his stomach cannot twist again in the future.

Here you can see the bruising from when he had his bleeding issue.



The staples go all the way from about an inch below the top of the bruising to the base of his Puppy Part, so you can see they really had to open him up quite a bit. :(



He came home, I took him out and then gave him one of his medications, and in the time it took me to heat some mac and cheese for myself, he was on the couch asleep. The medications have to be staggered, and one has to be given with food, so our schedule it all out of whack. The first night he came home I wasn't able to fall asleep until after 2am and then I had to get up at 5 to give him medication - ugh!

Dylan has been licking his head and both cats have been sniffing at him curiously. I wondered if they would hiss at him since he was gone so long and came back smelling of hospital, but they seemed to know who he was.

Logan is also restricted from exertion until the staples come out next week, and that's already been a chore because he stands with his front paws on the counter at the vet's office, he was trying to jump on Mom and me when we picked him up, and he was very excited to be back home. I have to take him in the back yard on the leash so he doesn't try to chase cats or run from gate to gate, like he sometimes does, but after one really horrid attempt at me helping him get on the bed at night, where he ended up bumping his belly on the bed, we have decided he can jump on and off the bed on his own.

This also means no playing with Asia for a while. We are going to keep them apart from playing until the end of the month, but I think we can probably try to take them for a walk around the block together, once the staples come out. This means Logan won't be able to go to Mom and Dad's during the day, and he won't be happy about that, but hopefully the time will go fast and he won't have any more problems!