My dog is at the emergency hospital

[dexterhead]

My dog is at the emergency hospital

Spotty, hope your baby comes home soon I've had experience with emergency vets. Nightmarishly expensive always ... I don't know why.

[USMgirl]

My dog is at the emergency hospital

Spotty, just reading this.....do hope you guys are better now. Do you have an update for us? I KNOW you must be beside yourself!!! We'll say a prayer for you all!
:h

[YoungAtHeart]

My dog is at the emergency hospital

Spotty, I hope that your dog is better very soon. It is so difficult when your dog is sick and needs to be away from you to get better. Could you call them and see if they will let you visit? A number of years ago, they let me visit my very sick cat, Riley several times, while they were treating him (he had to stay on an IV for several days). The bill for that was steep, but not as bad as you are describing.

In defense of these emergency clinics, part of the exhorbitant cost goes toward paying vets and staff for working hours that no one wants to work. They also have fairly elaborate equipment at these facilities, because unless an animal is very sick or hurt, many people will wait to get into the vet the next day. These pets may need more specialized equipment. Nevertheless, the bill is always a shock to the system.

Anyway, I understand your pain, and I hope you have a joyful reunion very soon.

[Evie.Lou]

My dog is at the emergency hospital

Dearest Spotty,I feel your sadness...LOVE,LOVE ANIMALS..Aussies are a tough breed.I showed Bloodhounds and they were riddled with health problems.I am convinced that Mix breeds are healthier and bounce back quick.Keep us posted...OK??

[dexterhead]

My dog is at the emergency hospital

YoungAtHeart;403608 wrote:

In defense of these emergency clinics, part of the exhorbitant cost goes toward paying vets and staff for working hours that no one wants to work. They also have fairly elaborate equipment at these facilities, because unless an animal is very sick or hurt, many people will wait to get into the vet the next day. These pets may need more specialized equipment. Nevertheless, the bill is always a shock to the system.

Anyway, I understand your pain, and I hope you have a joyful reunion very soon.

Yes, that is true, they are excellent and very caring at the emergency vet I've used.

[cuckoosnest83]

My dog is at the emergency hospital

Hi Spotty, hope your pet is okay and home soon with you. I understand about the guilt because my dog, a mutt but with border collie in her, loved to run on the beach. She had a torn cruciated ligament and the vet told me to leash walk her only. We were at the shore and I let her off the leash and the minute I did, she took off to run and tore her other cruciated ligament. I had to have surgery done on both her knees at the same time. The cost was high for my mistake but my girl ended up being fine. I'm sure your pup will be too.

[Niblet]

My dog is at the emergency hospital

First of all, "Stop feeling guilty right THIS minute".... I'm so sorry that you are without your dog and hope that all goes well for this much loved handsome fella... I love and have 2 dogs, so I honestly feel for you... I have yet to read through all the responses, so I may be speaking somewhat out of turn.. I wish you well my friend. Anybody that loves dogs in my book is a great person that should never feel guilt in anywhich way about their beloved pet. Hugsxxx and sending lots of encouragement at this tough time. Sincerely,

[New Day]

My dog is at the emergency hospital

Spotty ---- I hope when you read this, you've had good news about your dog. I also know what feelings you're experiencing. One thing I did want to address was why was your vet so against the raw diet? I have a very good friend in Australia who owns a lovely Border Collie and that is her diet as well, and recommended by her vet. She makes up her own food for her in huge amounts and freezes it into meal size ball, which she takes out of the freezer every morning, so it's ready for dinner. I guess there are two schools of thought on that, but for the working dogs, it seems to be what is generally recommended.

[blondie]

My dog is at the emergency hospital

Hi Spotty
Hope your dog is back and well. I know how you feel about vets making you feel bad about diets, but I've been feeding mine raw food for 2 years (after one had cancer) and they are so very healthy and energetic, but the vets roll their eyes and say it's not good for them! So keep doing what you're doing!!
best
blondie

[rubywillow]

My dog is at the emergency hospital

Spotty, what's the news today? I'll worry about you and baby while I'm gone if I don't hear something good.

[bestlifeldms]

My dog is at the emergency hospital

Spotty,

I hope you are picking up your sweet buddy right now and that things are fine. So sorry for your worry and guilt. Have a rescue "retriever-mix" named Sadie. Don't know what we would do without her. My hub can't understand why, when he gets home, she is the only gal that comes running, panting and wagging her tail. I told him not to hold his breath...

Let us know how things are when you are home and settled, please.

Hugs, Best

[spottydingo]

My dog is at the emergency hospital

Update on George

Thank you thank you thank you for all your kind posts! So many wonderful words of encouragement ... I can't reply to each, but am SO grateful to have this community and really appreciate all your good wishes. Thank you!

Yesterday was horrible. Went to pick up George at 9:00 AM after 2 hours of sleep (stopped drinking after my last post so I actually didn't drink that much). He was diagnosed with Intervertebral Disk Disease (IVDD) and x-rays showed that a disk in the middle of his spine is pushing up onto the spinal cord. He's on a pain medication and Pregnizone (sp?), a steroid / anti-inflammatory that should help with the swelling.

A vet tech put him in the car, and hubby carried him into the house. He just lay there on his bed all day, panting and whining. We were so worried, it was so horrible to see our spunky guy so out of it. Twice we picked him up on his bed (using the bed like a stretcher) and took him outside to go potty, but he would get up and just lay down again. So, by 10:00 last night he hadn't eliminated in at least 12 hours so we took him back to the emergency hospital. Eventually they used a catheter to drain his bladder and decided he should go on an antibiotic as well as he had a slight fever. By then he was on his second dose of Pregnizone and was walking -- slowly and painfully, but walking. So after another late night we got home at 2:00, but at ;east we didn't have to leave him.

This morning he is walking a bit on his own, and in fact just went out and went potty for the first time!!! yay!!! So, I think it will be a long road to recovery but hopefully the worst is over.

Apparently the IVDD can be a reoccurring thing and may require surgery. Regardless, he will be losing weight and we won't be doing anymore throwing the ball up in the air ... he loves to have the ball thrown straight up in the air and he jumps up and does sort of a side flip. I think this was the issue. We will (eventually) do regular ball throwing with the chucker ... he is so obsessive about it (even hurt the other day I believe he would have kept going) that it would kill him not to get to run after his squeaky balls.

But, first things first. I need to make an appointment to follow up and think I'll take him back to our old vet here in CA that we used before we moved to Canada. He knows George well (this vet practically held my hand through the first year we had George, as a troublesome rescue and our first dog). He also knows Cattle Dogs well, he has one himself and spent time with working ACDs in Australia. It will be a drive of about an hour, but I feel better going to someone who I know and trust than breaking in a new vet with a serious situation I don't know much about.

As far as the raw diet goes, the vet tech said most vets don't like it because they see problems with it ... the vet tech at the emergency hospital said they get people in there all the time with big bone chunks, and food poisoning. When the vet saw how adamant I was she stopped talking about it. I'm sure many people do the raw diet themselves and do it incorrectly. I myself buy a brand of frozen raw food that has the proper percentage of meat / bone / entrails / veg that I supplement with oil and multi-vitamins. So, I feel that I'm doing nothing wrong, and my dog doesn't have the intestinal issues he used to ... though I'm not as happy with what I'm getting in the States as what I got in Canada, where they had whole stores dedicated to raw diet as opposed to 2 brands here.

So, I'll keep you posted. Thank you again for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers!

Cheers Attached files [img]/converted_files/612999=3885-attachment.jpg[/img]

[startingover]

My dog is at the emergency hospital

Oh Spotty, I am SO pleased that George is doing better. Poor him and poor you! Prayers are with you that he makes a full recovery VERY soon.

[dexterhead]

My dog is at the emergency hospital

Very happy he is doing better .. what a sweetie. Give him a kiss on the nose for me. !!

[LookingToGrow]

My dog is at the emergency hospital

So glad George is home with you! I wish him a speedy recovery