The Week From Hell!

Wow, am I ever glad this week is almost over . . . it's been such a long week, and very stressful.

Before I go into the gory details, I have to say that Farley was throwing up last week. For some dogs this is a usual occurrence, but not for my Farley-Booger. He never throws up. So I took him down to the vet to get some bloodwork run. With him being on phenobarbital for seizures anyhow, regular bloodwork is a good thing to have. Anyhow, the bloodwork came back normal, with slightly elevated white blood cells, which could have been a response to stress. No biggie -within 24 hours he seemed to be fine.

Well, on Monday he started throwing up again. This time was different. It didn't stop, and he couldn't even keep water down. On Tuesday night I took him to a different vet clinic than I normally use. The x-ray didn't show any blockages (AP and lateral views), but Farley was very dehydrated. I declined to leave him with that vet (despite their insistence that I do so), because I wasn't comfortable dealing with a vet that I didn't know. So I brought him home and tried to get some fluids in him. I gave him a subQ injection of Lactated Ringers, which is about the only fluid his body retained. He was one sick puppy. He looked like a 15 year old dog - head hanging, no real substance to his body.

The next day I brought him to my regular clinic, and they admitted him for IV fluids. I know all of the vets and techs there, so I wasn't worried about leaving him there at all. On Thursday they did a series of x-rays after giving him barium, to try and see if there was a blockage, since he wasn't keeping anything down. Sometimes a regular x-ray doesn't show a blockage, especially if it's not a large object, or if it's in an odd spot. None of the barium passed through his system at all . . . it just sat in his stomach. So we knew there was a blockage somewhere close to the stomach.

Friday morning they did surgery, and removed the offending object. Guess we bought the most expensive piece of fruit in history, because it was a peach pit (or nectarine or something)! Lodged right in his intestines, blocking everything. I have the pit (souvenir???) and they also took some pictures during the surgery. Interesting to look at, that's for sure.

Anyhow, my Farley-man is home now, resting in a wire crate. Yesterday he was feeling pretty rough still, but today some of that old spark is back. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see him wagging his tail and wanting to play with his toys. I am so lucky that we caught this early (so no "extra" work was needed in the bowel), and that it was something solvable.

Sorry, nothing really to post about the other two. Satan is his usual self . . . bad, bad and bad. He is being VERY difficult to housetrain, which just seems wrong at 5 months old. I don't know what it is I do with my dogs that makes them think they can pee in the house . . . advice is always welcome.

Quigley is his same old self. Very affectionate and still trying to tell the world he's starving. Don't believe a word of it!

Well, that's it for this installment of the story of my life. Hope it wasn't too deadening LOL