Dog in Distress

After Ramona's visit to our kind neighbor and veterinarian, she became even more immobile and seemingly in pain throughout the day. The last location that she followed me to was the office, and she showed no interest in getting up after that. So, when I left for the afternoon, I allowed her to stay there, and I locked up her rascally dog-brother in the dog run.

When I came home a few hours later, she had moved about three feet from where I left her, but she was shivering and making painful-sounding cries and couldn't move at all. If you're not a dog owner, you might not understand how traumatic it is to see your dog in this kind of distress. I could only cry and feel so helpless that I couldn't make it all better for her. I just couldn't believe how quickly she went downhill. After exhibiting some mild signs of being in pain for over two weeks, she became completely debilitated over the course of a few hours.

So I put in a call to our neighbor, Dr. Z. (who had reminded me to call her on her cell phone any time...don't worry, I'm not usually the type to bother a professional on their off hours), but I got her voicemail. I couldn't stand it, so I managed to get the dog in a bed, then I picked her up in it like a taco. It was the only way I could mobilize her without causing extreme pain. And off to the doggy ER we went.

Ramona relaxing with her warm compress.

One shot of morphine later, and Ramona was higher than a kite and resting peacefully. She slept good through the night, too. I couldn't finagle my way out of working today, but I did manage to shift my schedule so that I could take her to the vet to be monitored while I was away for the day. We are home now, and Ra has some pain meds and steroids coursing through her system, and she is almost like her old self again. It's such an incredible relief.

Even though it was terrible to see my dog in pain and wonder if she would be okay, it all ended well. The kindness and caring from my neighbor/vet and the staff at the animal hospital was like nothing I'd ever experienced. Dr. Z called me back while I was waiting for the emergency staff to fix my doggy and kindly explained to me how this could happen so quickly. I guess this is just how ruptured discs go. She advised me to start the prednisone, even though we had originally thought to wait a full day since Ramona had been given an anti-inflammatory that morning. She also told me that even though she wasn't working the next day, I could bring Ramona into the clinic to be monitored since I couldn't be at home with her. Then she texted me a couple hours later to see how she was doing.

Ramona seemed much better by morning but still pretty much immobile. So I took her down to the animal hospital like Dr. Z had advised, and almost as soon as I took her out of the car in the taco-bed, the door to the clinic opened and the staff was saying, "Hi, Ramona!" They knew to expect us because Dr. Z told them we'd be coming and informed them all about our ER visit. The doctor on staff today called me while I was at the pharmacy to let me know how Ramona was doing, and Dr. Z texted me throughout the day to check on her, too. By the time I came to pick her up, she was like a brand new dog. I just texted Dr. Z to let her know that the doggy is feeling so much better, and I think she is almost as relieved as I am. On top of following up with me for almost a full 36 hours after our original visit to the clinic (and on her day off!), Dr. Z also gave me a generous discount for the services provided today and yesterday.

I am overwhelmed by the kindness shown to Ramona and me over the last couple days, and what a great reminder it is of the good that can come of being thoughtful, friendly, and kind to one another. I knew that I loved our neighbors after hanging out with them a few times, but Dr. Z really went above and beyond as a neighbor, vet, and friend. If your dog or cat is ever in need of veterinary services, I cannot highly enough recommend Pinnacle Peak Animal Hospital. Two thumbs up and five stars to those guys.

Sorry for all the mush.