Our Happily Ever After: June 2012

The last few weeks have been stressful with Dollar being sick. It all started in the middle part of May, his arthritis flared up and he was in a lot of pain- crying and yelping a LOT!!! We took him to the Vet, they checked him out and did x-rays- confirmed that he DID in fact have arthritis starting in his crooked little leg :(( They gave us some medication (anti inflammatory and some pain meds) and sent us home. I only had to give him the meds for about a week and a half and he seemed back to normal. Well, last week he started to act different, not himself and he had started to throw up anytime he ate or drank something. Last Sunday, he literally just laid on the ottoman ALL day, didn't want to move. I knew something was wrong with him so the following day, Monday, CJ called the vet and of course they immediately wanted to see him because of his lack of eating and drinking and vomiting.

My poor baby! :((

Not feeling well....

So, we took him out to Caldwell on Monday night and CJ's mom took him to the vet first thing in the morning on Tuesday. After waiting pretty much all day, we get word that Dollar was extremely dehydrated and they had put him on IV fluids and had drawn blood to see what was the matter with him. The blood work came back that he had some sort of liver damage (probably from the arthritis medicine that we had given him) They needed to him overnight to keep the fluids in him and to get him to eat. Wednesday morning I called to check on him and they informed me that they couldn't keep the IV in him and he had begun throwing up again, but they were doing all they could to get the IV back in him because he was still so dehydrated. He would not be coming home. :( I was so upset and sick to my stomach. This was not suppose to happen, he was just starting to feel better and I had always imagined that he would be here when we had kids. Of course the worse goes through your mind and since, he is my baby and has been for almost 5 years, of course I was worried and distraught because I knew that if they couldn't get him hydrated again, he would not make it. It was hard for my mind to go there. I think it was so sad because, like I said, he isn't even 5 yet!!!! In my mind, he is suppose to live to be old....like at least 12 years! He needed to be around to keep me and Tank company and to be the protector that he is to my future children. Wednesday afternoon rolled around the vet called- the actual DR that had been assigned to him- that kinda scared me, because, when the DR actually takes time out to call- it's most often NOT good news. But, she DID have good news, she said that after several attempts, they finally got the IV in him and he was getting the fluids he needed. He was also eating and acting much more perky. They, of course, needed to keep him over night again to just monitor him and make sure that he would be okay- she told me to call back Thursday morning to check on him and they could give me more info. I called Thursday morning and the nurse said that he had done great through the night, he was eating and had not vomited for over 24 hours (which was a very good sign) They wanted to keep him throughout the day though to continue to monitor him and he was likely going to be able to come home that afternoon/evening. It was such a good news to me! I was relieved and I couldn't wait for the day to be over so we could go pick him up! CJ was able to go get him Thursday evening and bring him home- The vet gave him very specific instructions- we had to give him two types of medicine twice a day for the next 10 days or so. It being absolutely critical that he take the medicine and eat. If he began throwing up again, his outlook wasn't good. Thursday night wasn't filled with much sleeping because I was so paranoid that I kept checking on him to make sure he hadn't thrown up (CJ thinks I'm kinda crazy in that regard!) Needless to say, he has been doing so well the last couple days. It's so nice to have him home and he is starting to act like himself again! I just LOVE this dog SOOO much! I can only imagine what it will be like when I have my own kids- I can't wait!