Dog at the Emergency Vet

In My Humble Opinion
1

I guess what I’m looking for is opinions, experiences, reassurances.

As far as I can tell, Libélula (whippet) fell out of our bed. One minute I was talking to my dad on the phone and folding laundry into the closet with all three dogs laying on the bed and the next I heard a thumpy-smack sound that was exactly the sound of someone not getting out of bed gracefully. The bed is about three feet off the ground and the surface she fell on is tile.

I moved to see if she was all right and she emerged from behind the bed with her filthy fuzzy ball in her mouth, which she’d had on the bed earlier, so I figured she was okay. But since she hurt her shoulder the week we moved up here (mid-February) and has kept reinjuring it and limping off and on and we are anxious that she just get better already so we can go out and do some stuff for crying out loud but the vet says no walks even, I asked her to walk to me so I could see if she was limping. She wasn’t limping, but something wasn’t right. She dropped the ball and started spinning, like she was trying to bite a fly on her bottom but forgetting to keep her back end in the same place. She teetered, she nearly fell. She seemed just unbalanced so I tried to make her walk along more and she was staggery and inconsistent.
I walked her along the hallway and into the living room and she launched herself into the blue chair (her chair and throne of comfort) but needed help to get her back end up. I looked at her face and she seemed unable to focus on me, and one eye seemed lolled out and I could see a bit of the white. I took my keys and shook them in front of her face to the left and she jerked her head like they were behind her and to the right.
Libélula is our baby girl; she’ll be six in August, and is as close to pure love and affection as it gets.

I frankly freaked.

I called our nearest emergency vet, now 50 miles away in Medford and let them know we were coming in (this was 10.30pm). I wasn’t thinking and I grabbed her collar off the table (everybody got baths today) and the idiot greyhound got so excited that I put Libélula outside on the lawn so she wouldn’t get knocked about, and so she could pee before the trip. I grabbed a leash and my wallet. I put her in the back of the car and drove like a bat out of hell north.
They are keeping her overnight for observation and treatment with a diuretic that should help any swelling in the brain come down if that’s what she has. But the vet’s not sure it’s from hitting her head. She threw up in the car and pooped, which she hasn’t done since she was a teeny awful puppy. He thinks it’s epilepsy (which is certainly seems like the aftermath of, except she’s never had any seizures before, no family history that we know of, and if she’d had a seizure while all of them were on the bed, I think the other dogs would have let me know by their reactions) or a tumor or best case scenario that it is a head injury that the overnight treatment will help despite the lack of bruising or head sensitivity.

But her head is still numb/unresponsive on the left side–which seems better than the panicked moments before we left, when she didn’t seem to see me at all and not be able to sense directional sound or control her balance. (She walked into things! My baby girl!) In fact, she actually seemed improved and more like herself when I left, but still uncoordinated. I HATED leaving her, she hated being left. I worry that not knowing what’s really wrong, the stress may be worse than anything.
So. Has this or similar happened to anyone you know? What was it? What do you think it might be?

Ultimately, we will be going with the vet’s advice because he’s seen her, and they’ve got her, but I’m hoping for…I don’t know what. Some hope, some directions to look at, some ideas?

2

Poor Libélula! And poor you! I know how much these things can freak one out. My dog apparently has epilepsy (“apparently” because there’s not really a test they can do for it.). It didn’t show up until he was almost three. His seizures are pretty much like what you described with Libélula except for the bit about her head continuing to be numb and unresponsive. I’ve never noticed that. But the uncoordination, the pooping and vomiting are what Ramush has after experiencing one. (FWIW, the other dogs never pay attention when he’s having a seizure.) The good news is that they can be controlled with medication. Ramush has his so infrequently that the vet said there was no point in medicating him - he has one about every 4 months or so.

I know how upsetting they are (I was in hysterics when he had his first one) but all you can do is ride them out. He seems no worse for wear after them, just a bit tired. Keep us posted on what the vet says and hang in there! Hugs to you and smooches to the pooch!

3

Sounds like what my old dog Eightball had one morning when she was about 5 - we took her to the emergency vet, they kept her under observation, and finally diagnosed it as epilepsy. They did prescribe medicine for her - I want to say it was phenobarbital but I could be wrong - but it knocked her so loopy we stopped giving it to her. She only had the one seizure, never had another and lived for 5 years after that. We ultimately lost her to cancer.

I know how frantic you must be - you and Libélula will be in my thoughts.

4

You and your pooch are in my thoughts. Please let us know how things go.

-Bearflag70
Fellow Whippet Owner

5

Any news on Libélula?

6

Thank you guys for your responses, I found them very reassuring and comforting. Particularly that if this was an epileptic episode, we may never have a repeat or that it will be an infrequent and relative nonfactor in her life.

I am thinking though that the pooping was a prize combo of unfinished business from the yard, stress from being alone in the car without her dog pack, not able to see and dizzy(?) and feeling me drive 90 mph through a mountain pass while trying to stop my mind from imagining all the CSI bleeder in the brain scenarios.

I called for an update at three a.m. and Libélula was doing better. They did one treatment of the Mannitol and while she still didn’t have sight in the left eye and lacked some sensitivity on that side, her coordination and demeanor had improved to the point they felt it important to just wait and see and not risk an overdose (she has a mild heart murmur) with more treatment since they had seen some improvement. Still wobbly and logey but better. Her blood panel came back clear, just concentrated (a little dehydrated).

We got a call at 7am that Libélula was a lot better and that they’d pretty much done what could and should be done there, that there were no seizures and each walk and function test had been better, and she was pretty much a whippet again. Still not so great on the left side though.

We drove up and got her and yep, just as described, much more “with it” and like our baby girl usually is–it sucks to have to leave her, but the joy of seeing each other again is kind of ridiculously awesome, she is as close to pure love and happiness as it gets. We sat down on the floor and she climbed up my husband and gave him fierce ear-lickies and we had to kind of help her to not knock herself over. She also seemed to really like the vet, (Dr. Ricardo Izarry, Southern Oregon Veterinary Specialty) she kept checking back with him and wagging, which was nice to see because before it has always been “thank goodness! Mommy! Daddy! Let’s get the heck out of here!” and no looking back.

She’s still a little weak on the left side, but some vision and sensitivity seems to have returned. It’s like she’s just kind of “floppy” on that side.

We all went to bed after coming back and stayed in bed and quiet with her sleeping between us until 3.30pm–my husband works nights, so we all kind of adjust to that schedule anyway since he’s a selectively sensitive sleeper. I say “we” but it’s not like the dogs notice, since they sleep about twenty hours around the clock anyway. When we couldn’t stand to be in bed anymore, I lifted her out of bed and steadied her and she shook herself out without falling over but was unsteady and walking along the hallway she veered to the left and kind of skimmed against the wall. The idiot greyhound was ecstatic we’d finally dragged our lazy asses up (it’s weird when the greyhound is the energetic one) and had to be held off while Libélula used the yard. Then she tried to play and nearly fell over and it was a bit worrying, so we’ve tried to keep her quiet all day. They’ve just gone out to the yard again and she is walking well.
She was so bad last night, blind and circling, that today is just a miracle. The vet recommended a recheck in 3-5 days with our local vet and if she is still weak on the left side we may have to do more tests to narrow it down before we can get an MRI.

We asked if it could have been a stroke–because of all this one-sided weakness, she even has a droopy mouth on that side, (she was allowed to finish my vegetable soup and is now orange on one side of her face) and he said that it isn’t usual for dogs, although it can happen when there is hypertension. They had taken her blood pressure three times and each time it was high, but each time it was lower, and decreasing during each time so he thinks it was just high because of stress, and not a factor and a stroke was unlikely.

So the theory we are thinking of is that when she fell, she hit her back or neck enough to scramble her brains a bit and cause the weakness (the back left seems particularly weak, and the sound I heard was not the sound of a noggin hitting tile). We’ve seen such rapid improvement in 24 hours, we’re just trying to keep her quiet and with no chance of re-injuring whatever the heck it was in the first place.

I really don’t know how people with kids do it. A friend of mine told me, “no matter how much you think you love your dogs, you will love your kids more” (although this may be a topic for another thread, esp. as she is a friend who was always complaining about her kids and then in the next breath urging us to have some of our own :dubious: ) and last night I was so worried and trying to be calm so I wouldn’t add to her stress and to drive safely–and really wishing I’d belted her into the passenger seat, what if she’d died on the way and couldn’t feel my touch and know…? And so it goes. And I was so frustrated, carrying my baby girl in who displayed such scary symptoms and…no CT. No modern magical imaging technology immediately available for diagnostic use. She’s our only smart dog, what if her brain was dying?

I know, I know.

My dog will never get a job and pay into social security. She will never discover (or at least be able to publish) a cure for cancer.

She’ll also never bring a gun into a classroom, or get drunk and drive through a street fair.

Again, topic for another thread, but I wish we had a system of health care in place for animals more similar to that of humans. It’s terrible when patients can’t tell you with words how it hurts, but we manage with children, infants, disabled individuals, don’t we?

Of course, the money spent in the “pet industry” is a frequent topic of outrage, but I think it’s a matter of priorities. I don’t want a Fendi bag to carry my dog in, or a six thousand dollar puppy mill bred pet store German Shepherd on a payment plan, I just want systemic support for a better standard of care for everyone’s animals.

This is not to say I have any complaints about our treating DVM and the facility we visited. Izzary was great; striking that precarious balance between “this is what is likely, this is what we can do right now” and taking the time to examine her thoroughly and obviously his through-care was fantastic since she loved him.

Then again, our human health care system is pretty broken, so I shouldn’t say anything. We walked right in (we called ahead) and were seen quickly, and they did what they could do with what they had. I just wish we had better access to more definitive diagnostic options.

Thank you guys for listening to this worried mess. :wink:

7

I’m glad to hear she’s doing better. I didn’t realize the left side weakness was so persistant - Ramush is usually fine within a half hour - so I would have wondered if it was a stroke also. But your vet sounds like he knows what he’s doing. Regardless of what your vet says, if you can afford it I would push for the MRI. It would help me rest easier. My dog is like my child also and I don’t care what anyone else says about it. Go ahead, people - mock me if you like. I can take it!

8

If you have been to the emergency room before, you must have gotten something from the insurance company detailing the payout they did to cover the hospital bill.

I know I wouldn’t be able to afford that kind of money for a dog, no matter how much I loved it.

More on topic though, what happened to your dog is very similar to what had my family at the 24 hour pet clinic at 3AM for, too. The vet never figured out what it was, and told us he expected it was something “neurological” instead of physical, like she was faking it or something. Maggie drank and drank and drank until she seemed close to bursting, but came and begged us for more water. Ten minutes later she was stumbling around over wide-open carpet, staggering, losing her balance and falling over, trembling, convulsing, and very slow to respond to stimulus.

We know that the vet can’t do anything about these episodes, and she has had maybe 5 or 6 since we got her 6 years ago. All we can do is cuddle up with her and wait until the worst of it passes and the convulsions stop. It takes her an hour or so for her to come back to reality and show any kind of interest or response to her environment, and she’s always famished afterwards. She eats like crazy, and spends the next day or two noticebaly “off”, but within a week she’s 100% the old cranky dog that just wants to sit in our lap and lick the furniture all day that we remember. Even knowing that everything will be ok soon doesn’t make it any less scary, though.

9

Ha, that’s why I stopped myself before going whole hog on my theory that if we had real health care for pets (not just this silly pet insurance) we’d have better treatment facilities and r & d field. I think healthcare for pets as part of a family plan like we have for humans might help speed our gradual departure from pets as throways society as well. (Or might just widen class and perspective gaps.)

I see how our insurance pays our doctors and I see their negotiated rates…and I see what I would have to pay if I had no insurance. And I don’t think it’s right, but who am I to argue with the power of the market and “bulk purchasing” in our country? Still, I would like to have the option to have my dog covered as a dependent. I promise she would cost less to our society than any fruit of my loins might.
:wink:
Ha, Tahoe (our stoner boy) licks the furniture. What a weirdo. He has such a blissed out look on his face though, so who am I to judge?

10

Just another update, in case anyone out there ever has a similar experience and is reading all this as freaked out as I was–she’s nearly 100%. She caught a piece of toast out of the air when it was tossed to her, and there’s just the occasional hint today that her back end might still be a little weak.

The left side thing wasn’t immediately noticeable because when we left for the vet hospital she was completely blind and confused and uncoordinated. All messed up and seemingly no lateral differences.

We are so relieved, but we’ll still be keeping her quiet as possible for the next week. Her illness seems to make her feel a little entitled though, or something. She climbed onto my chest on the couch and started eating ice cream right out of the bowl, like I was holding it there for her and had invited her. A little odd, even for our piggy. :wink:

11

i’m glad to hear things are getting better… and that doggy knows the “ice cream” cure all.