brad's almost daily updates

Around 5:30 AM Monday morning I was awoken by the sound of Mitch peeing a puddle on the bedroom carpet. My reaction was to jump up and drag him onto the bathroom tiles in case he had more to let out. His butt was a little low and had a little trouble standing up. My first thought was he was still groggy and half asleep and wasn't sure what he did and would stand up straight after a few seconds. That didn't happen. It was like his back legs were on ice.

I picked him up and carried him downstairs. I put him down in the kitchen and opened the sliding door to let him go out and finish peeing. He was able to go out and kind of run to the back yard, but he was drifting to one direction and then crashed. He was able to stand back up and pee, but when he came back he crashed again and had a problem standing back up. I went out and carried him back inside and put him on his bed while I tried to figure out what was going on.

I called the closest overnight animal hospital and their only veterinarian was in surgery and would not be available to help. They gave me the number of the next closest one which is about 35 minutes away. At some point Mitch threw up. I called the second animal hospital and talked to them for a couple minutes but they couldn't really tell me what to do. I hung up to think some more and he threw up again. I called back and told them I was coming in.

I put his bed in the car, got dressed, and then went to put my shoes on. Whenever I put my shoes on he gets very excited because he is either going for a walk or a car ride and bounces all over me while I'm trying to tie my shoes. When he saw me putting my shoes on instinct kicked in and he tried to stand up but his back legs didn't work and he just kind of stumbled. I ran over to calm him down and put him back on his bed. He threw up again. The image of him trying to stand up was heart breaking and still makes me tear up a bit when I remember it.

He threw up one more time in the car. A couple times he actually stood up a little bit to change positions. That gave me some hope. Somehow during the last couple minutes of the ride he got himself to the back of the car, and when I tried to open the hatchback I had to reach inside to keep him from falling out. He had gotten worse and couldn't support himself at all.

I tried to lift him up but he struggled a little bit and I had to set him down on the pavement. I let him lay there for a minute and calm down for a bit while I shut the car. I had a little problem picking him up from the pavement because I didn't want to put too much pressure on his abdomen because I still wasn't sure what was wrong with him, and if it was something like bloat I didn't want to make the problem worse by putting too much pressure on him. I was finally able to pick him up and support him by his chest and butt.

If you were counting that was the fourth time I had to pick him up with a jacked up adrenaline level. I didn't feel it at the time but I pulled or twisted something in my back.

A couple workers opened the back door to the place that led right into the operating room. They said they could take him and I could go in the front door to register. He was too awkward to transfer, they were both tiny women, and I didn't want to waste any more time so I kept walking and took him right to the station they had set up and waiting for him. By the time I set him down he was a complete rag doll. They told me afterwards that his eyes were fully dilated too.

Someone led me to the front to fill out paperwork while they worked on him. In past emergencies I can keep it together, think rationally, and do what needs to be done. Once the immediate crisis is over is when the adrenalin wears off is when it hits me and the emotions take over. This time was no different. I needed a few minutes in the restroom to pull myself together from seeing my buddy near death.

It was nothing to do with bloat. It is one of three things affecting his left front brain: a stroke, a tumor, or meningitis.

They did a chest x-ray to see if they could see any tumors, the reasoning being if they saw some tumors in his chest that could point to tumors on his brain. The x-ray came back clean. They could do an MRI that had a 50/50 chance of identifying a stroke if that's what it was for $3,300. The treatment for a stroke is just rehab, so that seemed like a waste of money.

If it was meningitis they would give steroids to reduce the swelling and antibiotics to take care of the infection.

I decided to have them treat for meningitis. If it was not meningitis the meds would not hurt anything, and if it was meningitis then starting treatment right away would have the best results. They said they were going to keep him for 24 hours and see what happened.

By 9 PM that night he could support his own weight but was wobbly and needed someone to keep him from falling one way or the other. He also ate solid food. They said he was looking around and even gave the tech a kiss on the face. When I took him in he went in and out of awareness of his surroundings.

I picked him up at 2 PM today and he can walk on his own but will drift one way or the other. If I gently guide him he can stay on a straight path. When he tries to lift his leg to pee he loses his balance.

When I brought him home he was able to go up the two steps from the garage to the laundry room, but was a little wobbly once he got to the top and took a second to catch his balance again.

He stood in the kitchen while I went back to the car and got his bed. I put the bed down in its normal place in the family room. He walked straight to it, laid down, and hasn't moved since. That was about two hours ago.

They said the steroids will make him drink and pee more than normal. I will try to get a feel tonight for how often he will need to go out, but more than likely I will take tomorrow off to care for him.

His med schedule right now is 2 am/2 pm. It will take me a few days to get it to 7 am/7 pm.

Fingers crossed for a good recovery.