Well, today did not start out well…
Yesterday morning, g-friend walked the dogs. I came home from running errands to find her balling her eyes out. Her dog, LuLu, had had some sort of seizure and literally keeled over for a moment while walking. She’s been having trouble breathing but the vet diagnosed it as allergies and so she was on pills for that and cough medicine for the ensuing cough.
But this was different. This had a death rattle sound to it. And it absolutely killed me to see g-friend in this state.
I hate that.
But LuLu seemed fine the rest of the day (she sleeps 90 percent of the day anyway, this was no different). (BTW, LuLu is a black chihuaha). Well she used to be black; she’s about 9 and her face is mostly grey and white (black on top). I have taken to calling her Skeletor. It usually illicits the same kind of hearty laugh you are probably enjoying now.
So this morning at 4:00 AM, that horrible cough came back. She immediately followed it with a quick rapid fire breathing. It sounds just awful.
So, G-friend went to an emergency vet hospital, where she plunked down $850 for a battery of tests, chest xrays and ECG’s. Make no mistake about it: pets are not pets anymore. They are bonafide family members.
So, we went in later in the afternoon and spoke to the doctor. Essentially LuLu’s heart is enlarged and is in the very very very early stages of well, congestive heart disease. The reason she coughs and pants is she the heart sometimes pinches the air passage that leads to the lung. You can see if on the x-ray, it’s crazy. It’s the left ventricle for those keeping score.
Now, here in this instance, it can be managed with about 3 different types of optional meds. We start out with one, see if it helps (take blood work up in 4 days). If it doesn’t seem to change, when we go to #2 and then #3. But at least what we’re hearing is some semblance of workability, of hope. Better this than, well “beats the shit out of me!”
The doctor was very kind and extremely detailed in her knowledge. She had no problem explaining things to us. It was a breath of fresh air. At least G-friend doesn’t have to deal with the death of her dog anytime soon, especially given that next her birthday is next Saturday.
Holy shit, her birthday’s next Saturday!!!
…..
Ha.. you thought I forgot, didn’t ya? Well can’t say what I’m doing she might read this 🙂
Thoughts and prayers for LuLu (and Superchunk too! Jeez, what a week for the 4 legged kids)…
