It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions for the past two days. It starts with hardly any sleep, a lot of stress, research, more questions and most importantly what I concluded about what went wrong.
Corrin was brought in Monday at 8am for her spay. I signed the consent forms and away I went. I was waiting anxiously all morning for that call with the vet saying, “The operation is complete, she’s in stable condition, you may pick her up at so-and-so time….” but rather at around 11:10am I had missed the phone call by a minute before called back. The vet tech transferred the call to the vet he said “Corrin was fine, we were prepping to operate, but…” and my heart dropped.
It turns out that right before they were going to make the incision, her breathing became strained and very very laboured (gasping for air). They adjusted the tube that was down her trachea and that helped a bit but she went back to laboured breathing soon after. The vet made the judgement call to stop the operation completely and to recover her on oxygen (11am – 3pm) to figure out what was going on. He told me that he suspected that it could be some underlying issues with her heart or her lungs and asked permission to take some xrays of her. I agreed.. Her xrays came back pretty much normal with some slightly more-dense than usual lungs. He said he had given her an anti-inflammatory by injection to ease any swelling in case there was any trauma caused (thank you so much). This was all discussed over the phone. 4pm the vet tech called me back and said discharge is at 5pm, Corrin ate most of her piece of banana and was administered critical care by syringe as she was not eating much aside from that.
Let me just say waiting to see her felt like an eternity…
Got to the vet at 5. Waited as they were very very busy. Each patient room was full of dogs and cats, there was a couple waiting with their dog in the lobby. Some folks came around and picked up their dogs that were boarded for the day. I finally got to see the vet and he described what had happened again, showed me the xrays, and said that we should take more xrays after she is calm and recovered at home. We made an appointment for that.
He prescribed her antibiotics (Baytril) saying that if it was a respiratory infection than we should get the antibiotics started sooner rather than later (which seemed to have been the best thing out of the entire situation at the vet and I am so very thankful for his judgement). At this point I had not seen her yet, I did not know her condition as he said she was stable enough to go home I figured she’d be maybe just tired? but other than that be in the same condition she had arrived. The vet tech brought her in, her ear was bruised from the IV catheter, she was very tired looking. The vet tech pulled her out from the carrier and showed me how to administer the medication, I could hear her breathing fairly loudly but figured it was because she was stressed. I said thanks, paid the price for it all, and left to take Corrin home finally.
I took her home and placed her into her xpen and right away she sniffed around, went to the corner, and huddled there. I went and sat beside her to be with her and that’s when my heart broke. Her breathing was raspy, snoring and mostly rapid and laboured. I touched her head and she didn’t flinch or react to it at all. I figured she needed time to calm down more from the drive home so I gave her about 10-15 minutes before returning. Still, she was very lethargic, rapid breathing (140 BPM!!) , loud breathing. I called the vet back immediately. He said to monitor and continue to count her breathing rates and to make sure she doesn’t have blue lips or eye tissues. I let her rest, offered her more banana, and hand fed her some hay (she ate about a strand). After that I administered her antibiotics by syringe with the help of my partner. She rested more, completely flopped over -head to the floor passed out sleeping. On my way from the kitchen after eating a small bite of dinner, I blacked out and fell down hitting my knee really hard on the floor. My partner insisted that I went to sleep and he’d stay up with Corrin. I passed out asleep too. At around 2:30am my partner came in and told me that she was sounding better and was eating again.
About 630am I administered the meds again. She started sneezing and shaking her head and that’s when I knew for sure it was snuffles. Around 9:20 her breathing finally slowed down and she finally was eating and pooping (thank the heavens). Her breathing was still raspy and loud but by noon it was just heavy sounding. The snoring comes back every now and then but it’s not as bad and mostly happens when she’s active.
So far she seems to be doing well. I’m glad the vet got her on antibiotics ASAP, if not record timing as she developed symptoms there from what I suspect was from the stress of all dogs and a foreign environment. She’s still resting now.
I don’t know what I should do from here. If the stress makes her this sick, should I take her back for xrays and the spay? What are your thoughts. Sorry if that was very long to read, I just wanted to make sure it was thorough.
Thanks
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