Well, I speak to you today, as of yesterday, a woman of the elderly age of 40 whole years old. Which probably would have caused me some existential dread, had Pax not decided to scare all us shitless here.
CW: sick dogs, surgery
I mentioned in my last post that Pax had been vomiting on and off and we'd taken him to the vet, and he'd seemed to be better. Unfortunately, he resumed vomiting once more, again in a very strange pattern of sometimes dry retching, sometimes throwing up food, sometimes just bile, sometimes regurgitating. We tried rearranging his food schedule, not giving him his chew, trying different treats, but it did not matter. It was random, we couldn't figure it out. Then, one morning, he regurgitated his entire breakfast and chew shortly after eating them, and I decided it was time to go back to the vet. They gave me an appointment for the next day, but when I let him out a few minutes later, I discovered the biggest mushroom I have ever seen in his pen. I swear it sprung up fast, because I did not even notice it before. But I know wild mushrooms and dogs are not a good combination, so I pulled it out and saw what looked like a bite out of it. I couldn't say it was a Pax bite, but he regurgitated again, and I went, 'fuck it, we're going to the vet today'.
We had to go to the emergency vet, and they could not have been nicer there. They didn't seem to care about the mushroom, but they were concerned by the vomiting and his stomach hurting on palpation. They suggested x-rays and bloodwork and putting an IV in to hydrate him, which we agreed to. We went home and came back and got the results, and she started with the bloodwork. It was a little hinky, his liver enzymes up (we already knew his liver enzymes were high from his mouth surgery a couple of years ago, so that wasn't crazy alarming) and showing mild pancreatitis. Puzzle had pancreatitis back in the day and I thought 'great, we can treat that'. Then she brought out the x-rays and it showed a 3.3 cm mass in his stomach near his duodenum.
She said it could be a foreign body like a toy or it could be a tumour, and she couldn't tell from the x-ray alone. Either way, he needed it removed. Our area doesn't have an endoscopy, which I was surprised by. Basically our only option was to open up his stomach and see what was there. If it was a foreign body, she'd remove it, if it was a tumour, we'd have to decide what we wanted to do. Mum and I agreed that if it was cancer, we'd rather end things there, just not wake him up from the surgery. He's so happy and busy and we'd rather him go out peacefully than suffer through treatment or just be on a kind of time bomb situation.
She suggested that she take more x-rays later in the day to see if it had moved at all, which would make it more likely to be a foreign body. So we left him there until about 10:30 that night and came back for him. The x-rays were inconclusive, but the person who read them this time seemed more confident of a foreign body, which was slightly reassuring.
Please insert all members of the family being incredibly stressed and upset throughout all of this. I won't dwell on it, but I have never been so scared in my life, and taking him back the next day for the surgery was the hardest thing I have ever done. Mum, who has seen five Scotties put to sleep, said it was the hardest thing she'd ever done.
The plan was that the doctor would do the surgery. If it was a foreign body, she'd remove it and close him up and call us. If it was a tumour, she'd call to confirm what we wanted to do while he was still open, and we could come down to say goodbye if we chose that route. It was a hell of a wait, but we knew the surgery was going to take about an hour, so after that we were hopeful, and thankfully, after three hours, we got a call that it was a peach pit and he was recovering really well.
Cue much relief and rejoicing, followed by, 'how are we going to recover this dog when two of us have bad backs and he can't do stairs and the house is a mess'. But one step at a time, the dog is alive, this is ideal, we are grateful. We can pick him up at 10:30PM again, unless he needed overnight care (which I won't get into, but the system was weird and made no sense, and Mum, ever the nurse, said we would just sign him out and look after him at home regardless. She nursed Shilling through a post-splenectomy, this was no sweat for her). He was good to go, though, and everyone there was very charmed by him. One of them 'rocked him like a baby' in a chair, and the vet said he tried to pull his IV out, and he was smart enough to work at it when no one was looking. He would wait until no was there, then try to pull it out. She was very amused by that. The whole staff was lovely and could not have been nicer or more communicative. As scary as it was, there was no question in our minds he was in good hands.
It wasn't a peach pit, by the way. A peach pit would have made sense. My dad eats a lot of peaches and has ADHD and is not tidy. Pax could have got one of those. But it was a chestnut. We don't have chestnut trees in our yard. We don't know how he got it. But when they showed it to us, it was not a peach pit, and when I looked it up, it was definitely a chestnut, and I actually remembered him throwing up something similar about two months ago, and not knowing what it was. There were at least three then, but one must have stayed stuck, and floated around in his stomach, intermittently blocking off the intestines, hence the weird pattern of vomiting, changing dependent on where it was in his stomach.
It's been 12 days since then, and he has been the goodest boy. He's done everything we asked, he's rested, he's behaved himself, he has been an awesome patient. We went to our own vet today for follow up and he got the all clear. He's recovered perfectly and fully healed. It could not have gone better, and I am incredibly grateful to enter my 40th year on the planet with my best boy with me.
Some other 'fun' adventures during the recovery process:
-- he bit my dad the first night we brought him home. He was still sedated and my dad tripped going down the stairs with him to help him go potty, and he nipped him by reflex. I had read that dog bites needed tetanus shots, and it wasn't a bad bite at all, but my dad is immunocompromised, so I wanted to be safe. The sheer level of frustration trying to get this shot for him. I called our GP, and everyone there kept saying 'he had his tetanus booster in 2018, it's good for ten years' while I am literally looking at the Government of Canada website saying you need a booster for fresh exposure if it's been longer than five years. At one point, the nurse said to me 'but exposure to what?' I don't know, the thing we've been talking about?! He did manage to get it, but I did not need three hours of phone tag on top of looking after my dog.
--Pax had to wear a 'surgical suit', which is a onesie, and he looked so fetching in it, and even though he hates even wearing a leash, he wore it without issue. He even understood that we had to undo it when he went out and do it up again when we brought him in, and would stand there expectantly for it.
-- He managed to figure out how to poop in the onesie without messing it up. Ever since he was a puppy, the act of pooping has been a very stressful event that cannot possibly be predicted and requires running around to get oneself revved up for it, and spinning in circles during the act. He wouldn't poop for the few days because he could not perform the appropriate rituals, and just when we thought we were going to have to take him to the vet about it, he pooped on the living room rug, through the onesie, without it getting dirty. And continued to do so throughout recovery until yesterday, when he finally hit the potty pads on the porch. What a boy.
--I threw out my back carrying him up down the stairs to go potty, and that was very unpleasant, but we did manage to get him an area to go that did not require carrying and he figured it out right quick.
--We bought a ramp that came too late, but we used it today for the first time taking him the vet for the follow up and he just did it first try no questions? Down and then up when we got home. Like, he's the best boy, really.
--The sheer decline of the Internet will never cease to amaze me. I try to avoid AI at all costs, and I wanted to know when chestnuts grow on chestnut trees and I could not find a a single website that would tell me. Not a single fucking one. It was all AI slop generated websites, the search thought I wanted to know how fast chestnut trees grow or when they first can be harvested, not looking at the words I was using in my actual search to just give me a fucking answer. I have now switched to Ecosia, which, while it does use AI, it's optional, and plants millions of trees, so at least I'm helping the environment. And the search results are actually relevant to what I ask. It feels like Old Google. Chestnuts grow between August and September, and we still don't know how Pax got them.
Despite these travails, there is much to be grateful for. We have the money to afford this, that is an immense privilege in this current economy. The chestnut didn't get stuck in his intestines, which would have been even more serious and life threatening. As much as I wish we could have figured this out sooner, whatever way I look at it, this was the only course of events that could have happened. If that mushroom hadn't been there, we might not have figured it for a lot longer. And I have learned that 1) he loves us and trusts us, and if we ask him to do something, he'll do it. 2) I have worked hard to train him and it paid off. 3) Even though I feel like 'not a real grown-up' and that I have not accomplished what I'd like to have by this age of 40 due to my myriad of health issues, I am stronger than I think I am. I did all this. I raised a good boy, I looked after him, I gave him all his medicine, I got through it, and I am capable.
Oh, and the Blue Jays have been a great distraction through all of this. Whether they win or lose, having a game to watch every night has been really lovely. I am grateful for that, too.
I certainly hope everyone out there is having an easier go of it than we have, but things are looking up here at least.
Talk to you soon!
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