I took this image of daughter Catherine with Erik on her lap about 3:00 AM at the Emergency Vet about a week ago.
We still don't know what happened to him, but Erik was very, very sick. He couldn't keep anything inside (from either end) and was miserable. We took him to the vet in the middle of the night and they couldn't figure out exactly what was wrong with him. He had swallowed no foreign objects and there was no blockage.
By the next morning he couldn't walk. Erik will be three years old in April. He's a canine athlete and competes in Agility Trials so is otherwise very, very healthy.
This all happened within hours of Catherine taking the dogs to visit friends in the country followed by having the whole family here for brunch. The brunch could have nothing to do with it because our other dog, Penny, and all of us ate the food and we are all fine.
The emergency vet and our regular vet the next day were not able diagnose exactly what was wrong, but it appeared Erik had been poisoned. We don't know if it was something he picked up out in the country, on a walk near home, something that someone threw over our fence.... If only he could talk.
After preliminary testing at his office, our regular vet sent out blood and urine samples, but we don't have the results yet at this writing. He prescribed meds that seemed to do the trick.
The good news is that Erik is back to his happy self now.
This was tough....
Lois
22 comments:
I hope Erik feels better now. Sometime people set poison traps for dogs here...
I am so glad he is happy and feeling OK now. (I was almost afraid to read to the end of the post) What a terrible thing to have happened. Lucky dog to have such caring people to attend to him.
Oh, my God! My heart just broke seeing that picture and reading your post. When Molly was two, she swallowed a dryer fabric softener sheet - totally without my knowledge. Long story short, the Vet took out ten inches of her intestines where the sheet had become lodged. He called me after the surgery - which took much longer than he originally told me - and he told me he could not make any promises. Fortunately, that was many years ago and she is fine now. You never forget the feelings you have when you are going through this. My heart goes out to all of you.
So glad he is ok! Poor little guy, though not so little I guess. :-)
Glad your dog is ok! He looks a lot like our 14 year old baby that we lost this past weekend. Is he a lab?
Poor Eric! I hope that no one was mean enough to poison him! Please keep us posted on what you learn.
Hi Lois..that is awful poor baby ..yes if only they could talk.I hope they can find out the problem!
We had a Tibetan terrier that ate some real suet (the chunk of beef suet ) that we had out for the birds and a few pieces had fallen of from the birds picking at it and the dog ate some of it and nearly died...it clogged her arties.if she hadn't vomited it would have been worse ..she couldn't stand or move!!
I hope everything works out !!
Good luck!!
Grace
Lois, that sounds just like what happened to my mom's cat. He's finding showed he engested a posinious house plant, can't recall the name. It has colorful leaves, and also phylidendrum. If you have any house plants like that you might want to disguard them or put them up higher. Mom got rid of the 2 plants and he's been fine ever since. ....debbie hope he's fine now.
That poor dog, we have made some midnight trips to the emergency vet ourselves. You are right, it is hard.
Glad to hear he is recovering.
oh lord! this would have been terrifying! your dogs are so beautiful and healthy and well-cared for, that not knowing what they were exposed to (and whether there was any malicious intent) would be SO worrisome! i hope the tests will yield some answers. in the meantime, i am so glad he recovered!
I too Hope the test results give you some answers, Lois. Hope Erik remains well.
I am so happy for you that he appears to be well now. I haven't visited for a while it has been a bit mad here but I am delighted you are on your travels again. Now I get to accompany you on more road trips!!!
I'm glad Erik is feeling better, but it's still worrisome not knowing what he ate that affected him. It's hard enough going through a scare like this without knowing exactly what caused it.
Oh Lois, I am so glad to hear that Erik is better. It is so frightening when our animal companions are ill. Give him a big hug from me :-)
Beth
Hello Lois
As you mentioned it could be he picked up some poison bait will running free at Catherine's friends home but all the same I bet it was a stressful time for you all. Hopefully he is well on the way to recovery now.
I linked to your blog the other day when I wrote this post - http://stillwaters-cathy.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-word-for-2012.html - have youseen it?
Take care
Cathy
Oh, my, I don't even like reading this. My heart was in my throat reading this, afraid to get the end....hope all is well soon....and hope you figure out what caused it.
Oh, that is so scary! Poor Erik! I hate how that can happen. I guess I should be careful not to let Choco loose on a walk... I know she'll jump on any thrown out garbage on the road... I'm so glad this story had a happy ending.
Oh my goodness, I'm so glad he's all right. If only they could talk.
so scary! Glad he is fine now. Hope you can find out what happened.
Oh wow. I hate that when animals get sick and we humans can't figure out what is wrong. I am glad, no I am thanful, that Eric is back to normal for him. He is a beautiful dog and has a great home and I hope he doesn't lick the wrong thing out in the fields.
Patty put a couple of mole pellets in one of their tunnels and our dog then, Cuddles, licked some of the residue we didn't even see and it made her deathly sick. I mean, she's surely gonna die sick. But the vet gave her something and she lived to the ripe old human age of 23. She was the oldest dog our vet hospital ever cared for. And then she was put to sleep as the suffering from arthritis was too much for any one, including her, to have to bear.
Now in response to smoking and my flapper girl:
I would never have picked up smoking if I would have known then what I know now. But then the Navy boys were showing up at home, tanned like a coconut and lavish with their Lucky Strike cigarettes. I stole a whole package from Bob Clark, home on leave, and smoked them, one after the other, in the chicken house. Our neighbor lady, Esta Flory, saw smoke coming out of the cracks and crevices and figured that, somehow, our chicken house caught on fire and she came running down to tell mother about it. With a bucket of water in one hand, she opened the door and saw me dizzy as a top wobbling round, and threatened to throw the water on me if I didn't move fast enough. Much to the delight of the old neighbor lady who chuckled all the way home.
so glad he's okay. poor thing..
aw, this would have been terryfing!
Poor thing... Glad he's recovered.
I'm just wondering whether he had a virus infection like we humans get?
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