Not A Fabulous Week
Originally posted on my old website on August 25 2022.
We've had a bloody shit week this week.
Massive weekend for our daughters dance show weekend - that actually all went smoothly and besides the dancers dropping like flies with a gastro bug, we got through that unscathed and happy to get to dance. Winning, right?
So our dog - Alfie. Almost 3 year old Boxer and the light of our family's life. He went to the vet with an ear infection last Wednesday, quite a bad one. Cocktail of drugs and home we went, happy that he would be getting better.
Next day he goes off his food. Like, REALLY off his food. If he ate, he would vomit. Drink - vomit.
We knew he'd had heaps of drugs, and attributed it to that. Who wouldn't get a gutsache from those meds. He's pretty prone to ear infections and this one was a doozy.
Well, by Saturday he still wasn't eating. Of course it is the weekend and nothing is open. Always the way. He was still ok though, just very quiet.
Sunday things turned to shit. I was out with Ambi at her show, Adam and Dex were at home because Dex was sick with what we thought was a tummy bug. Turned out it was the beginnings of Covid. Alfie just got sicker and sicker. He was so quiet. If you know the Boxer breed, you'll know that that is not normal at all. They are pretty crazy!!
Took him to the After Hours Vet at 10pm and were told it would be $1500 to get him admitted, do bloods and give him fluids and then we send him to our normal vets in the morning. We couldn't do it, our budget simply doesn't extend to that. So instead they offered pain relief, anti nausea meds, try get fluids in at home and take him to our vet in the morning.
So we tried that. Sadly, it was the wrong decision, as we feared. 2am, he was lying on our bed between us, and had gone really downhill. I had my hand on his belly and he just stopped breathing. It would have been a good minute. I leapt out of bed, turned on the light and he wasn't breathing and was completely unresponsive. Adam grabbed him and we were talking loudly, trying to get him to move and he just wouldn't respond.
Eventually he kind of came out of it but couldn't even walk down the hallway without falling over, so in a split second, we agreed that we can't lose him and Adam took him back to the after hours, knowing we had to drain our savings and credit card to do it, and who knew how we would pay the rest of the bill.
The diagnosed Pancreatitis. We still do not know how he developed it, if it is a new thing or if it has been simmering away for a while and we just didn't know about it. Either way, he was really sick. 7.30 Monday morning I picked him up and drove him to our vets. He was completely spaced out, I don't think he even knew who I was or recognised our car. Handed him over to our vet on Monday morning, and came home. Two hours later, Dex and Adam tested positive for Covid and so we've not been able to go back to see our boy, and it has been horrible.
Tuesday night we got the news that there was still no improvement and that they can't get him to eat, nor to keep down what they made him eat. The advice was given that if in 24 hours there was still no improvement, it would be time to make a call on his future.
Tuesday night and all day Wednesday was awful. I've never been so sad, never seen Adam so sad, nor our kids. It's been a horrific couple of days, and the fact we've got Covid in the house, the emotions are all running so high anyway.
The next morning, we were told there was still no improvement and although he is a little happier and more energetic, he still isn't eating, and has a very upset stomach. We then started talking about how the process would work if we need to say goodbye, given that we are isolating, and were given a couple of options so that we could think on how to do it. They said they would keep trying throughout the day to get him to eat but it didn't look good.
Tonight, Wednesday, we got the news that he had turned a corner. He's not all better, he's still not definitely coming home, but that he had a much better day and was starting to willingly eat very small portions of food, and keep them down. Even though we know he still may not make it, the fact he is trying so hard, gave us a little glimmer of hope when it has felt completely lost all week.
This is where we are at now. We don't know if he will make it, but his chances are so much better than they were 24 hours ago, and we're holding onto that so tight.