Dog - Part 4

So its been a while since I talked about Dog.  I don't have much to talk about today, so I'll continue his story of the first few months we had him.

I left off when we were at the shelter and the shelter was trying to see if they could help us out at any way.  When Megan comes back I'm still upset.  I told her "I know I signed a paper that said I will pay for all medical expenses from yesterday through the rest of Dog's life, but this is a little much!" Thankfully she told us if we transferred Dog to an emergency vet facility that they suggested they would take care of some of the bills.  So, we decided to transfer Dog.  The vets office he was currently at couldn't keep him past 7 PM, so we had to transfer him no matter what.

I called the new vets office and told them to expect us.  When I arrive, they take Dog and tell me they'll call me and keep me up to date however, they don't know when Dog will be able to go home.  They are going to place him in an oxygen tank overnight and give him IVs and meds.

The next afternoon I get a call saying Dog is doing fantastic and he is ready to be picked up.  The vet also says "By the way, your dog is sure a barker!"  I was shocked, I had no idea he was a barker.  He had never barked at us.  He had barely made any noise while we have had him.  I just dismissed the vets comment as a mistake.

I left work early that day to go pick up Dog.  As soon as they brought out Dog I knew everything had changed.  Here came this energetic dog literally running at me.  The nurse was attempting to hold him back but Dog was "on a mission."  Seeing Dog's energy in those 10 seconds really showed me how sick Dog was when we met him.  I ended up getting pretty overwhelmed thinking "This is NOT an apartment dog."  The vet ended up prescribing 2 different medications for Dog and I would have to come back in a week so they could check his progress.

Well, I went home, and we gave Dog his first dose of medication and his dinner.  Dog gobbled up his dinner so fast that he burped a few times.  We soon discovered that Dog is VERY food motivated and will eat just about anything.  He even had no problem taking his pills because he really didn't care what went in his tummy.  Again, this really scared me, because I could barely get him to eat hot dogs the day before.  I wondered how sick Dog really was if he was so different after 24 hours.

After a few days we notice Dog is developing a severe rash on his belly.  I bring it up to the vet and she says to put some cream on it and to let us know if it gets worse.  Well, of course with our luck, the rash gets worse.  I can tell Dog is very uncomfortable, his stomach is very warm to the touch and he keeps licking and scratching it.  I feel awful.  We go into the vet and they tell us they are going to call a Doggy Dermatologist who has more knowledge on skin infections.  We go back to the vet 2 days later.  The Doggy Derm says the rash is an allergic reaction to one of his medications.  The rash has turned into a fungal-type infection, so we need to take him off one of the pneumonia meds and put him on a steroidal cream.  Unfortunately this means that Dog will take longer to get better.


To Be Continued... Don't worry, there is still a ton of Drama with Dog's health.