Monday, March 16, 2015

Breezy's Nighttime Adventure/Scare

Saturday was a long day.  Or rather, Saturday through Sunday morning.

We woke early Saturday morning after staying up late Friday night.  We had a craft fair to attend and needed to be there by 8am.  We packed the car, grabbed some coffee and snacks and cash for change and headed out to the fair location.  After struggling with setting up the "pop-up" canopy (anything but!) we got everything set up and pretty and ready to go.  It was a fun day, if long, meeting a lot of nice people and making some good contacts.  By the time 5pm rolled around and it was time to head home, we were beat.

We'd eaten a late lunch so headed home, unpacked half of the items in the car, and just collapsed for a little bit.  I drank a ton of water and ended up falling asleep on the couch.  I woke Bex so we could bring the goats in and milk, and then ended up falling asleep on the couch AGAIN.  It was 10pm when I woke up and brought Breezy, our Shar'pei/American Bulldog mix dog, in for the night.

She didn't dash for her food as she usually does but I thought nothing of it because she went directly to it.  I happened to be sitting on the "throne" when I heard a crash in the kitchen and the sound of dog paws/claws skittering around on the floor.  I yelled "Hey!" thinking she'd knocked something down and was sliding around in it.

I walked out to see what had happened and was shocked to see her lying on her side on the floor, unmoving.  I called her name and when I got closer could see vomit at her head and feces at her rear and all she could do was barely lift her head to look at me.  I forced myself to calmly stroke her head and clean the mess, then woke Bex and told her as calmly as I could that we had to get Breezy to the vet.  I asked her to comfort her while I called her oldest sister Jessica to find out the nearest 24 hour pet hospital.  Jess offered to meet us and go with us and to call ahead to Rohnert Park to let them know we are coming.  I put a blanket over Breezy to keep her warm and Becca stayed by her side while I cleared the rest of the craft fair from the back of the car and onto the side of the driveway so she could sit in the back seat with Breezy, who was still not moving.

I have never had a scare like this with a pet before.  Without Jess and Bex I think I might have been paralyzed, not knowing what to do next.

It took three tries to pick her up off the floor in the blanket, but I was finally able to do so and very carefully carried her heavy, unmoving body to the car.  As I gently laid her down on the back seat, she suddenly stood up.  I was shocked!  Despite our encouragement, Breezy would not lie down in the back seat and preferred to sit next to Becca as we drove toward town.  When Jess got into the car, Breezy was back to normal, trying to get to the front of the car to greet her.  I couldn't believe the change!  I was grateful for a witness in Bex so I didn't think I had been imagining things.

We arrived at the vet hospital and Breezy was close to normal, though somewhat subdued.  The tech who first examined her wondered what had happened under her tail - it was all swollen - and she wondered if Breezy had been bitten by a bug and suffered an allergic reaction.  It later turned out that Breezy was "holding it" for as long as she could and let go a big "3 pound" pile of poop in the examining room later.

Her vitals were good though she has lost weight over the last couple of months that I have not been able to get back on her as I usually can.  Recommended tests and x-rays showed nothing abnormal and we are awaiting the blood test results.  Breezy was described as a "rockin' grandma" because she is lively for her age.  After she karate-punched a vet tech (accidentally) while being maneuvered onto the radiology table, she became known as "kung-fu grandma."  She is also the first dog the vet has ever seen able to throw the sand bags off her paws that were supposed to keep her still for the x-rays, and sit straight up while being restrained to the padded table, lifting the padded trough she was lying in.  Every time they got her situated and ready for the x-ray, as soon as they left the room she would throw the bags off and sit up.  It took 7-8 tries to get the pictures.

At the end of it all, and at about 3am, her collapse was still a mystery.  She got some Benadryl in case it was an allergic reaction and we headed home.  After dropping Jess off at her car and arriving home, I allowed Breezy to finish the dinner she hadn't eaten before her collapse.  We headed to bedrooms to get back into pajamas, and came back out to check on Breezy.  Then discovered that in the five minutes we were out of her sight after our arrival home from the vet, she had gotten into a large bin that had been sitting on a chair filled with items from the craft fair, and had found the remnants of Bex's chocolate bar and ate it!  The vet tech was laughing her head off when I called to let them know and to find out if she was going to be sick again.  Luckily the dose was too small to cause her trouble.  She was back to her old self!

So far there is no sign of the problem and no definitive answers as to what caused it.  One of the test results turned out wrong so we're going to recheck her (at no charge thank goodness).  The vet thinks the sample was mishandled at the lab because the glucose level was so impossibly low Breezy would have been having seizures at the time the sample was taken, and that didn't happen.

So we watch and wait and enjoy our Rockin' Kung-Fu Grandma for a while longer, and I hope a good long while.