Lannie's brush

Oh, this was a weekend I could have lived without... I think I've sprouted several new gray hairs.
Short (not really) story. My sweet Lannie had a severe brush with death.
Thursday, an already crappy day, the poodles went to the vet for routine dental cleaning (trust me, they were well past due - their breath could sink a ship) After several extractions, x-rays, antibiotic packing, mass removal and pain meds, I went to pick them up. I noticed Lannie panting, but was paying more attention to the rapid depletion of my bank account than her - big mistake. When I got home I noticed she was still panting quite hard and starting to whine a little - very unlike her! I went to give her a comforting pat and noticed her abdomen was huge and tight as a drum - sounding much like one, as well. I quickly called the vet who told me to rush her back for an x-ray... and long story short she had "bloat".
For those two or three of you regular readers, you may remember this happened to Leo a year or three ago. It's when their stomach fills with air then twists on itself both cutting off blood supply to the stomach and cutting of any exit for stomach contents causing more gas to fill the already bloated stomach. Quite lethal if left untreated and time is of the essence. How ironic that my poor puppy was put in harm's way by being monitored at the Vet's office!
We rushed to the emergency room for emergency surgery which was slightly delayed by none other that George W Bush - yep he was in town for some private fundraiser causing the major interstates to be closed, we were on one side of the interstate and the surgeon on the other ( just another reason to dislike the W!). An hour or so later she was wisked away to the operating room where they managed to save her life by twisting her stomach back in position and actually sutured it to her abdominal wall. Unfortunately they weren't able to save her spleen, so she's pretty anemic right now.
The next two days have consisted of driving her back an forth to the vet's office for IV fluids, IV antibiotics and monitoring. I spent many hours with her since I wasn't so sure about their monitoring techniques - have you ever spent and hour or two in a dog crate? I wouldn't consider it something for the bucket list.
The little girl was so weak and out of it from anesthesia that she would barely look up. when we first came home Friday night, the only animation we got from her was after she was home for about 5 min she realized that Sophie was visiting for the weekend. she drunkenly walked to her, gave her a sniff, and about a 3 second wag. Then straight to her dog bed where she slept deeply for the next 10 hours.




















Yesterday was a big triumph when she drank water. Today she actually ate some ground chicken I cooked for her. I think we've come through the worst part - now I just have to keep her very enthusiastic brother from harassing her too much.

The next photo is not for the squemish. It's my sweet girl's incision from her sternum to her pubic bone - poor baby. I guess unless you ckick to enlarge it, you really can't see it too well, so click at your own risk.













Night now
and pats to the pooches
kisses for the kittys
and sweet dreams