Okay, so... I was planning on making an update video about how my surgeon re-check went and all the fun stuff that happened while I was out of town... but I figured I need a rant blog first.
Everyone who has been following my blog knows I have two gosh darn adorable puppies.
The White one is my girl, Yoshi... the black and white one is my boy Dojo. They are my little puddin' bears. I love those dogs. They're my fur kids.
So, Dojo has this disease called HGE (Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis). No one really knows the cause of this illness. Most experts believe it's a genetic disorder they are born with that may or may not ever manifest. If it manifests, it's usually triggered by an outside stimulus like stress, diet, no one really knows for sure.
The one thing they do know is, it manifests itself like a stomach flu. There's vomiting, the inability to keep food down, diarrhea, followed USUALLY by bloody diarrhea. It actually follows the symptoms of the Parvo virus. It is easy to treat, but if left untreated, it can cause death in 24hrs or less. Most of the dogs who have died from HGE were dogs whose owners decided to "wait it out" and "See in the morning", which many people tend to do. Dogs eat all sorts of things not necessarily good for them that causes stomach upset, so whose to know? (My theory is if he's not acting right, vomiting, has diarrhea or blood in either, don't wait no matter what... but that's me.)
The telltale signs of HGE is in the blood work. If everything else is normal except for an elevated Hematocrit, that's HGE. A normal Hematocrit for dogs should be 37 to 55%. Any higher, if all other tests come back negative, you probably are dealing with a case of Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis. HGE is more often seen in dogs ages 2-6, (Yorkies, miniature poodles, Dachshunds, Schnauzers, etc) however, it can effect any breed, age or size of dog, both sexes equally.
It is highly treatable with Sub-q IV fluids if you get it in time. For serious cases, potassium may be added to the fluids, and antibiotics may be needed.
For more information on this disease if you have a dog read this article.
So anyway.
Dojo has HGE. The first time he was diagnosed was in 2010. shortly after dinner, he threw up all his food, which is unusual for him. Dojo has a sensitive tummy, but usually he just throws up a little yellow bile, never undigested food. So that was concerning. Then he kept vomiting until all the was throwing up was mucus. I called the on call emergency vet who is now my regular vet and she said to just see if he stops now that his stomach is empty.
instead of stopping, he started vomiting every 5 minutes. He was so uncomfortable. He kept getting up and sitting down, getting up and sitting down. Yoshi was even concerned, because everywhere he went, she would lay down next to him and clean his face. Finally he started vomiting blood, and the vet had me take him in... where he was diagnosed with HGE. Everything was normal except for his hematocrits which was at 66. (It should be 37 to 55). 300ml of fluids and an over night stay later, he was back to normal.
He had 2 more bouts of HGE, so I became very familiar with the symptoms. See, now, bloody diarrhea like Parvo is a known symptom... but my dog never got bloody diarrhea, he got bloody mucus like vomit. So it manifests itself in more than one way, which some people may not realize. Anyway.
Once again, I knew he was about to have a bout of HGE when he vomited up his food last night. I waited to see if he'd vomit more because it was 3 in the morning and I didn't want to have to wake up the on call vet. (We don't have an emergency hospital, the vets in the area take turns being on call for emergencies.) He vomited again and 5 minutes later one more time. That's when I knew what I was dealing with and I paged the on call vet.
The on call vet called me back and asked how long he had been vomiting. I stated in 15 minutes he had vomited 3 times. She said he could probably wait till 8am and then she could see him if he were still sick. I explained he has HGE and she asked if he had bloody diarrhea and I explained he never does, it's always vomit that turns to bloody vomit. She replied that it didn't sound like HGE to her (like I haven't gone through this 3 times already), and that unless I REALLY felt this HAD to be seen NOW, she'd like to be home in the morning to hug and kiss her kids good morning.
I didn't know what to say, it was a complete kiss off. UNLESS I REALLY felt it HAD to be now... She'd rather be home to hug and kiss her kids in the morning..
IT'S SUNDAY. Her kids don't go to school and minus emergencies she doesn't work. She can't hug and kiss her kids when she gets home? And had she not made such a fuss about it, it takes MAYBE an hour to run the blood work to verify HGE and give the 300ml of fluid needed to treat it. She'd have been home no later than 6am, which I'm sure, her kids would still be sleeping.
Flabbergasted I hung up on her. I honestly didn't know what to say. I didn't know how to even approach such a blow off. She called back 3 times and I finally answered because I needed my dog seen. She got all high and mighty with me about hanging up on her and that "I said I was willing to come out if needed" and blah blah. I tried to calmly explain why I hung up, that (and maybe I was wrong, maybe it was just communicated badly) but I felt she was blowing me off with the whole "Kiss the kids good morning" thing... but she started yelling over me and not letting me make my point. Her favorite saying was "That's not what I said. That's not what I said". Soooo, if you DIDN'T say it... how did I even know you HAD kids lady?
So I hung up on her again. I tried calling around to other vet clinics in driving distance and I only found one on call who was like, "HG what?" as she yawned sleepily. So finally I had to suck it up and call the on call vet back who once again immediately started chastising me for hanging up on her, and how she was "willing" to see my dog and was trying to explain that (though the words "I will see your dog" never made it passed her lips as she was too busy yelling at me for hanging up on her the first time.) Finally because the bitch wouldn't shut up I started screaming into the phone... "MY DOG IS DYING! YOU WANT TO SEE YOUR KIDS IN THE MORNING, I WANT TO SEE MY DOG ALIVE IN THE MORNING! HE IS MY KID! WILL YOU SEE HIM OR NOT?!" she starts yelling back that she always intended too... then the blah blah blah again. so I screamed over her, "WILL YOU SEE MY DOG OR NOT?! I DON'T WANT TO ARGUE WHILE HE'S DYING!"
finally she shut up and agreed to meet me at the clinic. I brought my mom with me as a buffer cause I new someone was going to get punched, and it wasn't going to be me. Dojo threw up on the way there so I had my mom bring him in while I cleaned up.
My mom walked in and the first thing she did was apologize for the situation and the way it was handled... but the dog is the most important thing right now. The vet looked at her and to my mom's astonishment she said... "That's not satisfactory. Your daughter needs to come in an apologize before we do anything."
So my dog is dying and she is being petty wanting an apology from ME when she was the one who started everything by (what I felt was) blowing me off, and then not letting me explain why I was upset and hung up. So I get in there and she stands in front of me all superior like and says, "I deserve an apology." I'm like "Look My dog is sick," "No, no, that's not how this is going to work. You need to apologize to me."
I looked at my mom desperately and apologized begrudgingly. That wasn't good enough for her. She started lecturing me about how she deserved to be treated like a human being and crap. Finally I lost it. I had enough with this psycho. I'm like, "Are you going to help my dog or not? My dog is dying and you want to lecture me?" finally I said, "look, you and my mom don't have any negative feelings towards each other. So just help my dog, I'll sit in the car with my other dog." She once again said, "No, that's now how this is going to work." like she held all the cards. She actually wanted to lecture me on how she deserved to be treated like a human being and get a "heartfelt" apology (because my apology wasn't good enough) before she'd help my dog.
Treat HER like a human being? What about me? First she blows me off and tells me to wait till her precious kids can be kissed good morning, while my dog is puking his guts out every 5 minutes, unless I "really feel I have to come in now". Then when I try to explain how that sounded to me, she's yelling at me for hanging up on her instead of hearing me out... all the while I'm panicking because I know how deadly HGE can be if untreated, I'm stressed out, I'm crying, which is stressing out my dog who is already sick... and she wants ME to treat HER like a human being?
That was the last straw. I pulled my dog out of there and told her point blank, "If my dog dies, it's on your head."
She kept screaming at us to come back and I said, "why the hell would I? You basically said you won't help my dog." She once again started the "That's not what I said" crap. My mom was like, "then we must be having the same hallucination cause I heard the same thing." My mom and I got in the car and took off. Even my mom couldn't believe how petty that woman was. She basically tells my mom who offered her an olive branch with her apology, that she would not even look at Dojo till I came into the building and gave her the apology she wanted.
Desperate, I called my regular vet at home. I didn't know what else to do. I felt really guilty calling her when she wasn't on call... but psycho bitch wasn't going to help unless I got on my hands and knees and kissed her feet. So my vet came out and treated him. My vet did a blood test and saw his Hematocrits were at 61%... so they were high, everything else normal which is HGE like I tried explaining to psycho vet.
Even after all of that, were were still home before 7am. So had psycho vet just came in and treated him without this high and mighty "I'm a human being" crap, she'd have been home long before her kids woke up.
I owe my vet a gift certificate to a restaurant or a bouquet of flowers or something. Haven't decided yet. But she came out when she wasn't even on call, without complaining, or worrying about being home to kiss her kids in the morning, or asking me if it was "really an emergency" that couldn't wait. I'm sure she wasn't happy... I'm sure she was cussing under her breath when she went home, I wouldn't blame her... but at least she did it instead of letting the dog suffer over pettiness.
This is why I miss where I use to live. I love where I live now. I have always felt this is home... but at least where I use to live, there was a 24 hr Emergency vet hospital and none of this "on call" shit. Sad thing is... I need to find an alternative to this psycho for if there is ever an emergency and she's on call again. Much like doctors, we lack vets around here.
anyway... that was my horrible night. Dojo seems to be better with the treatment. He's not as comfortable as I'd like to see him, but at least he's sleeping and he hasn't vomited since about 5am. that's about 8 hours. No food tonight at all, but I may introduce a little sips of water to him later this afternoon to help keep him hydrated. He will be seen again Monday morning at 8:15am. if his hematocrits are normal, I can start re-introducing food along with a Zantac, if it's still a little high, he'll get more fluids and we'll go from there.
But so far, everything seems like it's getting better now. (knock on wood with a few prayers.)
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