Anyone who's read this blog before knows I tend to assume the worst when anything is wrong with Mumble. Today was a day to push me right over the edge , from worry to panic.
All day yesterday, Mumble refused to eat any food. Despite his history of gastro-intestinal issues, Mumble has never been one to turn down a meal, even when he feels sick. Not only did this fact make his lack of an appetite a concern, but I also know from history that if he does skip a meal, he tends to get nausea because he has too much acid in his stomach. The usual remedy for an upset stomach of fasting a dog for a certain amount of time never worked for him.
The real problems, however, started last night. A little while after going to bed, I heard Mumble get up and vomit. Mumble's had a lot of upset tummies, but his issues tend to be on the other end, so vomiting is not usual for him. Still, one time of vomiting would not be that big of a deal. All night vomiting, however, was.
Throughout the night, this was Mumble's continuous cycle: sleep anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours; get up and whine or bark at me; go to the water bowl and drink down absolutely all of the water; run over to the door and whine again; vomit all of the water he just drank. By the morning we were both exhausted and I was in tears.
About 5:30am I decided that since I wasn't sleeping anyway, I might as well get up. I got out some chicken and boiled it, hoping that Mumble would be enticed to eat. When it was time for his breakfast, however, no amount of coaxing or attempts to hand-feed would convince him to eat any of the chicken.
After Mumble threw up more water during the morning, I decided I had to get him to the vet.
Mumble has a great vet. She's extremely thorough, has a very holistic approach, and is always willing to put up with my obsessive questions and even my over-the-top worrying. There are other vets in her office, but I never see them because I'm always worried no one else will be as good as her. Today, however, I had no choice, as she wasn't going to be there.
Before going to the vet, I made a call to Mumble's doggie daycare provider. He had been there all day yesterday, so I wanted to know if there was anything they had noticed that I should tell the vet. When they consulted yesterday's log, they told me that Mumble had thrown up once and "was not himself." They explained that he mostly laid around all day, and that he hardly barked the whole day. Mumble loves running around and barking and herding the other dogs. Every time I pick him up, he runs across the room barking when he sees me there. When they said he was quiet and still all day, I think that's the moment I realized something really was wrong, and it wasn't just my exaggerated worrying.
Ultimately, I had to call a friend to cone along to the vet too. All I could think of was how my Padfoot had been sick and had one day gone into shock and no one could save him. I was terrified of something being seriously wrong like that with Mumble.
So we went and we saw a vet I'd never met before. She listened intently to my description of symptoms, checked Mumble's heartbeat, felt his tummy, and asked questions. She wanted to do X-Rays, and when she explained that after the X-Rays, either way (whether they revealed something seriously wrong or not) we'd come up with a plan - I felt relief for the first time. That would probably be the moment most people panicked, when something like X-Rays were recommended, but for me, it was when I knew that this time, I was not too late. This time, we'd do everything we could to make Mumble well.
The X-Rays were done, and there was "nothing big and scary" as the vet put it. No obstruction or anything like that in his bowels, no bloat. She pointed out lots of pockets of air though, indicating a lot of gas. She also pointed out what she referred to as a "slightly blurry spot" and explained that she'd had the techs repeat the X-Ray multiple times to be sure it wasn't due to wiggling on Mumble's part. And then it got a little scary again - apparently this "blurry spot" is something that could sometimes indicate pancreatitis.
The new vet then told us her plan: (1) She would give Mumble two injections to help with nausea and reducing acid; (2) I would take home two medications to give Mumble over the next several days (oral form of the two medications in the injections); (3) Mumble would be on carefully controlled portions of food consisting of only rice and boiled chicken, starting with an extremely small amount and working up. The idea of this plan is to treat the symptoms, with the hope that if the medications reduce the feeling of nausea, Mumble will begin to eat again and to feel better. We'll call this Plan A. Crucial to Plan A is careful monitoring to see if it is working and to watch for any sign that Mumble is getting worse.
Because this vet is thorough, there is of course a Plan B, which is a possibility because of that "blurry spot" on the X-Ray. If over the next 48 hours Plan A is not working; if Mumble is lethargic, still bot eating, continuing to vomit, then comes Plan B - we go back to the vet for more tests, this time blood work to determine if Mumble has pancreatitis and how we should treat it.
So here we are at home, and so far Mumble is at least finally keeping down some water. I was beginning to really be concerned that he'd become dehydrated. I've been giving him only a little bit at a time, because he still wants to drink as much as I put into the bowl all at once, and I'm afraid that will make it come right back up. He still won't eat though. He just looks at the chicken and rice mixture that I made him, and then gives me a sad look. (the cat, however, is very interested in this food). He's sleeping, probably exhausted from being up all night and day from this sickness. He sleeps, and I pray for him to get better. He sleeps, and I try to work and think about something else. Worst of all, while he sleeps I'm here reading dog health books and articles about pancreatitis. There is a such thing as too much avsilable information, especially for a worrier like me.
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