The Countertop Chronicles

My politically correct, but totally disobedient, dog is in bad shape.

We were gone this weekend, in Jersey, and when we came back he was acting pretty funny – very depressed, not his usual jovial disobedient self. Kicker was when I threw him a peanut butter doggie biscuit and he let it fall to the ground.

Wife just called. She took him to the vet today cause she was so worried and it looks like he ingested rat poison. He had stayed with my sister in law, and we think he may have gotten into either rat poison in her basement or ate a rat that had been poisoned. Vet doesn’t know for sure, but they’re doing blood work and he’s in the hospital with major internal bleeding right now.

Hope you pull through buddy. I love ya.

update

Back from the vets. He has a lot of internal bleeding. They gave him an injection of something to help coagulate his blood and will re-examine him in the morning and probably operate, depending on what they find Please, keep your rat poison away from pets and small children.

Whats eerie about this is that EPA has been working to ban the over the counter sale of 2nd Generation anti-coagulant rodenticides and classify them as a restricted use pesticide. The agency’s goal is to stop exactly what happened here, “the mis use of these products by housewives and suburban women” (thats an actual quote from the staffer in charge). They’ve been at this for almost 9 years but haven’t succeeded yet – in large measure because of my efforts (I don’t oppose their goal, just their approach). (see update below)

Its going to be long night and I need to do some sole searching.

UPDATE 1:55 pm January 24

Well, he’s doing slightly better. He’s got a very high white blood cell level and an enlarge spleen. They were talking about removing the spleen, but think he is too weak for surgery right now. They finally got him to eat a little bit and have him on IV and hope to give him some oral antibiotics to stem whatever infection is causing the elevated white blood levels.

Dr. said he’s doing slightly better (he finally wagged his tail) but isn’t really moving around and they are going to keep him there for continued monitoring.

oh, and to make matters worse, it looks like our hot water heater – which is a relatively new 15 months old – went kaput. So know hot water and no showers. Ugh.

UPDATE 5:45 pm January 24

Talked to the vet. Blood test has come back negative for the rat poison. They now think (are 99% sure) that he’s contracted something from a tick bite. Which is scary. He picked one up while we were in Georgia over Christmas, right at the scruff of his neck, we didn’t discover it for a couple of weeks until we got back. He was a big one. Anyway, the staff at the hospital are all in agreement that it looks like a tick borne infection/disease now. They still have him on IV, but said he’s showing continuing progress. The hope is that he’s ready to go home and recover tomorrow as he’s a bit stressed out being in the hospital. Of course, thats the hope. If he’s not ready to go home tomorrow we are going to have to make a very difficult decision.

UPDATE Jan 25 3:50 pm

Thanks for your continued concern.

We’ve had a very interesting morning, which had taken us through the complete range of human emotions. We spoke to the vet about 7:40 this morning at which point he said two things, they didn’t think this was a tick born illness (test came back negative) and that Beaux had taken a turn for the worse.

Initially, his red blood cells were at 22. Yesterday, they had gone up to 27, which was a hopeful sign, but this morning they had dropped down to 17 and the vet thought Beaux was near death.

However, for some reason, he decided to try another test – this time, he came back positive for an auto immune deficiency.The new theory is that his body is attacking itself. They don’t know why this occurs in dogs, but lucky they can treat it in some cases. So, they have started him on a regiment of steroids. If he was going to come through this, we should have known this afternoon.

Of course, even doing that didn’t return him to the fun loving pup he once was, and so this afternoon, the doctor called us with the sad news his development wasn’t progressing. My mother in law, who he loves, wanted to go by to see him and as soon as he saw her he perked up, though we don’t know how successful this treatment will be. So know, my wife is heading over there and is going to spend the night with him.

Me, being the cruel hearted person I am, first broached the fact that we don’t have infinite resources last night. You would have thought my wife caught me in bed with her sworn enemy. By this morning though, she was coming around to the fact that Beaux was not living the happy life we would want for him, and came around to what I thought was the inevitable.

We will have to make a decision sometime tonight or tomorrow, depending on if this new course of action takes effect.

UPDATE 5:55 pm January 27

Took him home from the vet hospital yesterday afternoon around 4:00 pm. They thought there was a chance of continued improvement, but didn’t think there was anything else they could do at the hospital. We were hopeful that being at the home would cheer him up and help him recover. At the same time, I also called our normal vet,, Juan Villar, who is a good friend but doesn’t work out of a full service hospital. He showed up shortly after we got home and reviewed the records and has been working with us.

At one point last night, we were seconds away from making the fateful decision, and in fact I think had already made it, when all of a sudden this strong willed and loving dog lifted his head and walked across the room. We checked his guns, which were ghost white at that point, and they had a touch of color. As a result, we’ve decided to take it minute by minute.

He’s on a rigorous regime of medicine, and seems to improve and then deteriorate. He vomited a number of times last night, but I suspect we gave him too much to eat We’ve cut his food intake down to a 1/4 of a hot dog every hour and a swedish meatball when he needs to take his medicine. He’s also eating a little bit of bread.

Today he seemed even better. When Dr. Villar showed up this morning, he jumped up and ran down the hall to great him. My inlaws stopped by, and he stood in the window for 30 seconds barking, before having to rest again.

He’s sleeping right now, snoring heavily, at my feet.