Unexpected excitement

Don't you just love it when you end up spending your evening in a way you very much did not plan? That's what happened last night to our little family.

Some background: Kaylee's had diarrhea for the past couple days (for those of you who said "ewww!" - deal.). No biggie for her, really. She's got a sensitive digestive tract and anything seems to set it off. But she seemed on the mend so I wasn't worried.

So last night, I came home from work and she went out to poop, and it was black. Now I know what this means: upper G.I. blood has been digested. This is not good. Since I have the world's best vet office, Animal Care Unlimited, they got me in right away, even sceduling an appointment so I wouldn't have to pay the emergency fee. I called Jeff, crated the other two dogs back up (before they got dinner, so they were exceedingly displeased), and hustled Kaylee into the car for the twenty minute ride to the vet.

(Aside: Kaylee usually gets carsick, but for a miracle, this time she didn't. At one point, she even looked out the window, all waggy-tailed.)

After everyone in the office gave Kaylee kisses and pats, and her fecal sample came back clean, we took a set of x-rays. Kaylee's stomach was basically blown up like a balloon, either with fluid or air. Generally, this means an obstruction. That is not good. My options were either emergency surgery or, though it would take time and time is not on your side with an obstruction, a barium x-ray to physically see if there was an obstruction. I went with the x-ray.

Lucky me, I got to hold Kay while she drank two big syringes of nasty barium, which she actually did like a good girl, with only a few obstinate moments. Since it was going to take a while for the barium make its way through her digestive system, if it was able to do so, I left her there to go find something to eat.

After wandering through four different stores, I was sitting in a parking lot, thinking about going into another one when I got a call that Kaylee was ready to go home. Yay! No surgery! She was lauded by the staff as the sweetest shar pei ever, and very easy to x-ray. (Personally, I find that hard to believe, since she's such a little snot. But does frequently behave in public, just so no one believes me when I call her a brat.)

The upshot is that Kaylee has two big ulcers in her upper digestive tract (gotta love it when the vet calls them "scary"), no obstruction. Her stomach was just full of stuff because her gut was very tender and just didn't want to hurt more by moving stuff through. The ulcers are big enough that you can actually see them on the x-ray.

So, we got sent home with five different medications to take for a full three weeks. I've had to make up a chart that shows us when to give them, since they are all given at different times of day, and one has to be given before any other food or medicine. And we have to switch her to a sensitive stomach food, which should be fun, since they tend not to taste all that great.

Bloodwork will be done this afternoon to tell if there's a reason for her getting these ulcers, other than just poor breeding (she's a rescue and has pretty much all the signs of being bred for looks rather than health*). I also get the joy of going in to pay the bill today - that should be fun. But, hey, it'll be cheaper than surgery.

So it looks like Kay should be fine, though the ulcers may be a continuing issue. But it was not how I expected to spend my Thursday night!



*She has lots of wrinkles, she needed entropion surgery, and she has the genetic disease familial shar pei fever.