My dear friend Dr. Lauren Prause ,is the kindest, sweetest Vet in the entire world - She sent me this story of a little dog that needed her help...
Samoa's Story
His name was Rowdy, but he was limp, couldn't walk, and had head tremors. His right eye was dropped, and his legs would uncontrollaby extend rigidly behind him. There was no evidence of hydrocephaly (water on the brain) or a portosystemic shunt. His family could not pay for further care, and he wasn't going to live long without it. He was losing blood through his urinary tract quickly. He weighed 0.8kgs (I'm not doing the math for you people- multiply by 2.2 and start using metric!).
Sage's turn:
When I first saw him, he looked like he was going to die the next day. He was awfully sick. But he was so cute and I wanted to keep him. I was crossing my fingers that he would stay alive. Before we knew what was wrong with him, we had to give him a blood transfusion [in mom's bedroom].
Stewart's turn:
Yes when I first saw him I told Lauren we could keep him if she could save him knowing he was a goner---shouldve known better.... I had also just chowed a box of cookies, the sum weight which was greater than the dog, and had colors the same as the dog. Thus his new name--SAMOA.
Lauren:
The first night didn't go well. I remember looking at the clock at 3:40am and deciding that I should euthanize him. He was crying as I cleaned the diarrhea off him. I decided that I was too foggy to make a good clinical decision, so I gave him pain meds instead and continued the IV fluids. The transfusion (thanks to Nurse Carrie's dog Remy who gave us blood) helped a lot, but when I saw the bloody urine come back, I had a pit in my stomach. I kept running through the causes of hemolysis and kept thinking that it had to be a toxin of some sort.
Stewart's turn:
I aked Lauren if he was going to make it. She said that she thought his vomit smelled like metal. She thought about zinc toxicity. I didn't think he was going to make it.
Lauren's turn: by Tuesday it was clear that he needed another transfusion. His ultrasound was normal, but I couldn't help it, and took an X-ray. There they were- the two pennies that caused all the red blood cell breakdown, vomiting, abdominal pain...We transfused him (Nurse Mindy's dog Izzy donated) again, and quickly ran the endoscope down to retrieve the pennies. I was worried that the esophagus would tear as I pulled them back up, but all went well. He started to walk as soon as he recovered from anesthesia. He also wanted to eat- EVERYTHING!
Stewart's turn again: I slept peacefully all night until the mongrel decided I was warmest and snuggled into my neck and I couldn't move for fear of smushing him.
Sage's turn:
But now he's all better. He also sometimes sleeps with me. We are going to train him to go to the bathroom in the litterbox; he's smaller than our cat was when he was an intsy little kitten.
Lauren's turn:
So that's the story of our new puppy, a 15wk old male Yorkshire Terrier.
