Author Topic: Do You Have Pets?  (Read 101304 times)

Offline Rob

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Re: Do You Have Pets?
« Reply #300 on: May 13, 2015, 04:34 PM »
Sorry to hear about your Great Dane IAS. 

We had a scare these past two weeks with our older Boston, Emerson.  She got into a trash can while I was out of town (dog sitter left the bathroom door open, against instructions) and the dog ate a bunch of trash. 

She was distended and threw up a few times, but otherwise seemed okay and the dog sitter who didn't want to mention there were tampons in the trash can only told me that she may have eaten some paper towels.  So I waited until Wednesday when suddenly she was trying to take a crap and nothing came out.  Off to the vet, x-rays show possible blockage.  Next day she passes a tampon, I'm thinking everything is good now, but she's not eating and not getting her energy back.

Another x-ray shows another blockage, before you know it I'm at an emergency vet getting an ultrasound which shows a "linear foreign body" (fancy word for string) that is causing her small intestine to bunch up on itself.  The string is acting like a saw and they basically tell me that it's only a matter of time before it perforates her intestine and she dies (they felt like it was hours, not days).  On top of that there was a blockage of some sort in her stomach that wasn't moving into her GI tract (hence throwing up her food and then eventually not eating).

So the doctors insist that it's surgery or take her home to die.  She's 12, but I had to try.  She could live another four years if I'm lucky... so she had the surgery.  They removed a plastic thing from her stomach, cleaned out some hair ball, and then removed DENTAL FLOSS from her small intestine.  They had to remove a section of intestine that was too damaged to heal properly. 

That was May 1st.  I got her back the following Sunday and it's been dog infirmary at my house ever since.  She's had to come to work with me all of last week, has had diarrhea like you wouldn't believe, can't climb stairs or play or jump on anything, was on three prescriptions and a fancy bland diet.

This coming Friday she's able to ditch the cone and stop being kept in a crate whenever I'm not around to make sure she doesn't play with the other dog and rip her sutures.  She's also lost a little over two pounds - which for a 19 pound dog is a lot.  So once she's otherwise recovered I have to work on fattening her back up - that part I'm sure she'll love.

The price tag on this was completely insane - so I'm sharing this to tell you all to make sure your pets don't get into garbage.  Even if you think you're on top of this, it can be a total freaking disaster over something as simple as a door left open.  Also if you don't have pet insurance, I recommend that you at least consider it.  Even if it only covered half, it could have saved me thousands of dollars.

This is about two weeks ago, pre-surgery when she was miserable and doped up and not eating.


This is the day I took her home from the animal hospital.


Chilling at my office in her crate:


Sutures after about a week:


Starting to feel a little better:


And, appetite fully restored, back in the kitchen at my office hoping Sam drops some of the food that's going into his smoothie:


« Last Edit: May 13, 2015, 11:29 PM by Rob »

Offline GrandMoffNick

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Re: Do You Have Pets?
« Reply #301 on: May 13, 2015, 05:53 PM »
Glad to hear she seems to be recovering. Just to piggyback on the warning. Many years ago my cat ate some thread and same thing it started cutting his intestines. My mom who had no money still found away to pay for surgery. Anyway since then I've been a freak about anything thread like not being accessible to my pets.
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Offline Qui-Gon Jim

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Re: Do You Have Pets?
« Reply #302 on: May 13, 2015, 08:24 PM »
Yes. Always remember this around Easter especially...  That plastic "grass" can be deadly. If you have pets, spring a little extra and get the paper variety.

Glad to hear your pooch is doing well. One question: was the dog-sitter a friend?

Offline Rob

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Re: Do You Have Pets?
« Reply #303 on: May 13, 2015, 11:28 PM »
Glad to hear your pooch is doing well. One question: was the dog-sitter a friend?

One of my wife's former students, nice girl and she's dog-sat for us before without incident.  She felt really awful that the dog had gotten sick, and I stopped giving her updates once I found out that it was going to require surgery.  The only reason I ever talked to her about it in the first place was because I needed to know what else was in that trash can.  After the first few days though when it got really serious, I just didn't tell her what was going on anymore, we didn't mention it on Facebook or anything so she wouldn't hear about it there too.

As awful as the whole thing is, she certainly didn't do anything malicious - it was a dumb accident that turned into a huge thing.  So I'm trying to keep her feeling even worse.
« Last Edit: May 13, 2015, 11:31 PM by Rob »

Offline Jesse James

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Re: Do You Have Pets?
« Reply #304 on: May 14, 2015, 01:38 AM »
Glad your dog's doing better Rob...  Geeze, so much going on with pets.

I'm currently trying to find a reliable method of edible anti-tick medication of some sort...  I deal with a feral cat group who I've largely caught/fixed (one wily one) and ticks are an ever-increasing issue here as it seems like Summers are longer/hotter and winter shorter.  Never had tick problems as a kid here, now it seems constant though.

2 let me remove them, but two don't let me near them...  So food seems to be the only way to get medicine into them at all.   ::)
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Offline I Am Sith

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Re: Do You Have Pets?
« Reply #305 on: May 14, 2015, 07:57 AM »
Glad she's doing well Rob.  Our Dane got into the kitchen trash once she figured out how to open the cabinet, but never had to worry about her getting into the bathroom trash.  I don't think I've ever heard of that before.
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Offline Tracy

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Re: Do You Have Pets?
« Reply #306 on: June 12, 2015, 11:30 PM »
Geez Rob - that's awful. Glad she's doing better - poor girl.
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Offline Rob

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Re: Do You Have Pets?
« Reply #307 on: June 14, 2015, 12:31 PM »
Thanks Tracy (and everyone else).  She's doing really well at this point.  The only real issues are the diarrhea, which has been an ongoing issue for 6 weeks now (but seems to finally be starting to get better) and then her weight.  We can't really work on fattening her back up until she can shat normally. 

Offline Rob

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Re: Do You Have Pets?
« Reply #308 on: March 14, 2016, 06:25 PM »
Well we had to put down our younger Boston, Dante, on Saturday morning.  He was 12 and we got him at about 8 weeks old.  He'd been having lots of issues lately that we thought were related to ruptured discs in his neck but ended up culminating in really serious seizures on Friday night.  There are other symptoms that I'm not going to bother everyone with, but the basic course of action was to spend $1000 on short-term treatment and then another $1500 on an MRI that was nearly certain to show a brain tumor.  So we made the call.  The awful thing was that he'd been a month without pain symptoms in his neck and we thought he was close to being ready to get out of the crate and get on walks and all that good stuff so even though there were warning signs, we thought it was just a neck injury - so this really feels like it came out of nowhere. 

I have no idea how people handle this, but we're plodding along.  I'm gonna miss the hell out of the little guy.

« Last Edit: March 14, 2016, 06:52 PM by Rob »

Offline GrandMoffNick

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Re: Do You Have Pets?
« Reply #309 on: March 14, 2016, 07:18 PM »
Sorry for your loss Rob
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Offline I Am Sith

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Re: Do You Have Pets?
« Reply #310 on: March 14, 2016, 08:09 PM »
Sorry for your loss, Rob.  It's been almost a year since we put our Dane down and every once in a while I'll still come home and expect her to come plodding around the corner.  The first month or two are tough and then it gets better bit by bit...
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Offline Jesse James

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Re: Do You Have Pets?
« Reply #311 on: March 14, 2016, 10:12 PM »
Sorry you had to put your dog down Rob.  I know that feeling all too well, and you just have to take your time.  Still think about so many pets I've had over the years. :(
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Offline Tracy

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Re: Do You Have Pets?
« Reply #312 on: March 14, 2016, 10:40 PM »
Rob - so sorry to hear about Dante. Our pets are such a big part of our loves - and they leave a huge hole when they are gone.
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Offline Matt_Fury

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Re: Do You Have Pets?
« Reply #313 on: March 15, 2016, 01:22 AM »
Sorry to hear that Rob.
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Offline Rob

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Re: Do You Have Pets?
« Reply #314 on: March 15, 2016, 12:52 PM »
Thanks everyone.  I've found an all new level of sympathy for people who have had to go through this.  I always knew it would be awful, but I really had no idea how much so.  Since I'm feeling overly nostalgic this week, here's one more from back when he was about 5.