Nightmare Evening

[Redyre Rotties]

Last evening I thought one of my greatest fears was coming to pass. About 10pm as I was getting ready for bed, I noticed that my older dog, Odessa, who will be 8 in Nov. was salivating, lip licking, and that she was not settling as she usually does this time of evening to go to sleep for the night.

I immediately gave her 2 extra strength Gas-X tablets, and did calming body massage. I felt that her abdomen was slightly distended, but it was not taut.

After about an hour, and a trip outside, the salivating had not abated, and I felt the abdomen was increasing in size. Then she started panting, and I got very scared.

I loaded her up and began to rush to the ER vet clinic. I called them on the phone to tell them I was on the way with a possible bloat case. I am flying down the interstate at 80 mph (I am about 25 mins from the ER clinic). Get pulled by a state trooper. As he got to my window, I burst into tears, and cried to him that my dog was very ill with possible bloat, and that if I did not get to the ER vet immediately, she would die. Thank you God for sending this man, because he let me go almost instantly.

As I am getting off the interstate to go to the clinic, I notice a light on the dashboard of my van that says "CHECK GAUGES". I look down, and my temp gauge is pegged on the hot side. Great. I turn on the heat wide open, put the windows down, the temp starts to drop, and I keep going.

I got my b.itch inside for an evaluation, and went out to discover a big pool of liquid under my van, and zero water in the fill tank. It is parked at the ER clinic, and may need an engine transplant to survive.

On the other hand, my b.itch did NOT torse, and altho she is having some pretty bad diarrhea, it looks like she will be ok.

So I missed my rings at the dog show today, but I am so thankful that my girl did not require surgery, and looks like she is going to be ok.

 

[trilyn]

Oh how awful-thank goodness Odessa is okay! That was very nice of the trooper to let you go.

 

[hikerchick]

Wow. I hope the dark cloud has moved on.

What does "My grump did not torse" mean?

Those words are not familiar to me.

 

[Redyre Rotties]

Sorry, you can't write the word b.itch here, and I always forget. This means that her stomach did not twist from the bloat, which would have required immediate (expensive) surgery.

 

[EweSheep]

Thank God you two are all right! Its bad enough for a dog to die from bloat.

 

[onthespot]

man, close call! Sorry about your van. I know how things go like that sometimes. You lucked out TOTALLY with the officer. Too bad there is no way to send him a note of thanks! Hope you can do CPR on the van... if it isn't one thing, it's another!

 

[Redyre Rotties]

Thank you all. I am still "teary" this morning, thinking about this, and reading all your kind replies.

The vet just called, she is doing well, and I am on my way to get her.

This girl is my pet and my heart, and I am not ready to lose her!

 

[gritsar]

So glad it turned out okay!

 

[Redyre Rotties]

First, thank you to everyone who sent a note or thought about us. I have her home. She is not much different to me from last night. She def. does not feel good. Films did not indicate any bloat, but did show lots of gas and slight distention from it. She developed some pretty nasty diarrhea during the night, but had not had it again according to the ER vet.

I have medicated her with Metronidazol, carafate, Digestive Enzymes, and more gas x in a tiny bit of rice.

She is resting on the bed. We appreciate continued good thoughts, now I am worried about pancreatitis. If she is not all better of course we will be at my regular vet tomorrow morning first thing.

 

[b.hromada]

I'm so happy for you that most things have turned out okay now. I know about vehicles! Ours just took a dump, hubby thinks timing chain. Don't have the money to fix it right now, and he is a mechanic. Go figure. Give your precious girl a kiss for me.