We almost lost our wonderful dog, Ruby, last night. Brent and I went on a double date with some friends and when we got back Ruby started acting a little weird. Her hind legs started shaking and she acted like it was hard to walk. We were trying to figure out if she'd somehow hurt herself or we thought maybe she got stung or bit by some insect and was reacting to the poison. We watched her for a few hours and things just got worse.
She got to the point of not wanting to even get up and she was foaming at the mouth and panting really hard. We did some more research online (I love google) and I called the emergency vet and told them her symptoms. We figured out that she'd probably gotten into some poison of some sort when the kids and babysitter were playing with her outside. We and our neighbors have all put gopher poison out since we've been having troubles with them lately. Brent always covers it up really well, but we think maybe one of the neighbors didn't do a good enough job. The vet said it also could've been snail bait from one of our neighbors' houses.
I ended up taking her in to the vet last night at midnight and she got even worse on the ride over. One of the symptoms is hypersensitivity to stimuli and she did NOT like being in the van. She had a small seizure on the way there, so I called them when we were almost there and they came out and got her immediately. They took her back and hooked her up to an IV, gave her some charcoal, laxatives, and a sedative. She had a high fever and was not doing well.
The doctor said if we would've waited until morning, she might not have made it. And if we wouldn't have brought her in at all, she would've been dead within 24 hours for sure.
They kept her overnight and I just went this morning to pick her up. She's doing much better, but is still shaking a bit and panting. Her fever has come down and she's walking around and eating and drinking, which is really good. Her muzzle and paws are covered in charcoal and she's got a sad little wrap on her leg from where they put the IV. But she looks so much better than she did last night. I was really worried when we got there that she might not make it. I've never seen her so terrified.
It's a tricky thing, being a pet owner. While we love Ruby SOOOO much, we're not the type of pet owners willing to spend thousands of dollars to keep her alive. And with just moving into a new house and having a baby here in a couple of weeks, it's not like we've got tons of extra funds floating around.
They would've liked to keep her a few more hours to keep the IV running, but it was going to be over $100 more for just 6 more hours there at the vet. So we opted to bring her home this morning and pay *just* $400 for the night of care.
I'm glad there are 24-hour vet care places or we'd be without Ruby this morning. Our next decision to make is whether or not to get a cat to keep the gophers away. ;) Obviously we won't be using anymore poison and we'll be keeping a much closer eye on Ruby while she's outside.
Here are some pics of our sweet doggie from this morning:
The kids were SOOO excited to see her after they found out what happened when they woke up this morning.
She got to the point of not wanting to even get up and she was foaming at the mouth and panting really hard. We did some more research online (I love google) and I called the emergency vet and told them her symptoms. We figured out that she'd probably gotten into some poison of some sort when the kids and babysitter were playing with her outside. We and our neighbors have all put gopher poison out since we've been having troubles with them lately. Brent always covers it up really well, but we think maybe one of the neighbors didn't do a good enough job. The vet said it also could've been snail bait from one of our neighbors' houses.
I ended up taking her in to the vet last night at midnight and she got even worse on the ride over. One of the symptoms is hypersensitivity to stimuli and she did NOT like being in the van. She had a small seizure on the way there, so I called them when we were almost there and they came out and got her immediately. They took her back and hooked her up to an IV, gave her some charcoal, laxatives, and a sedative. She had a high fever and was not doing well.
The doctor said if we would've waited until morning, she might not have made it. And if we wouldn't have brought her in at all, she would've been dead within 24 hours for sure.
They kept her overnight and I just went this morning to pick her up. She's doing much better, but is still shaking a bit and panting. Her fever has come down and she's walking around and eating and drinking, which is really good. Her muzzle and paws are covered in charcoal and she's got a sad little wrap on her leg from where they put the IV. But she looks so much better than she did last night. I was really worried when we got there that she might not make it. I've never seen her so terrified.
It's a tricky thing, being a pet owner. While we love Ruby SOOOO much, we're not the type of pet owners willing to spend thousands of dollars to keep her alive. And with just moving into a new house and having a baby here in a couple of weeks, it's not like we've got tons of extra funds floating around.
They would've liked to keep her a few more hours to keep the IV running, but it was going to be over $100 more for just 6 more hours there at the vet. So we opted to bring her home this morning and pay *just* $400 for the night of care.
I'm glad there are 24-hour vet care places or we'd be without Ruby this morning. Our next decision to make is whether or not to get a cat to keep the gophers away. ;) Obviously we won't be using anymore poison and we'll be keeping a much closer eye on Ruby while she's outside.
Here are some pics of our sweet doggie from this morning:
The kids were SOOO excited to see her after they found out what happened when they woke up this morning.
