The story of Aurra
On Tuesday when I picked Aurra up to put her on the bed she winced as if her side was tender. I thought I had just grabbed her in a weird way and perhaps pinched her. Wednesday the same thing happened. We trip over the dogs occasionally when they get underfoot but never purposefully harm them. I tried to find where she was hurting by applying pressure in different spots but nothing seemed to give her discomfort. Aside from the occasional wince when being picked up she seemed perfectly fine. She was active, running and playing with Obi, she was eating fine (she loves to eat), and her breathing was normal. She does pant every now and then but that's normal for her since she's a little fat weiner dog. She was fixed after her c-section the beginning of May and never lost the weight. Thursday she seemed a little more tender but again she was still as active as ever. We thought maybe someone had kicked her in the yard and bruised her ribs. It's a community yard that's open on 2 sides (to the alley in the back and the street out front). We only let them out to potty a few times a day and they are on 20ft tethers. If ever they start barking we quickly go see what it's about and tell them to hush. Usually it's a bird, cat or squirrel. If it's a person we take them inside. Most of our neighbors know them and even though they bark, the people know they can walk right past the dogs because they won't bite, besides the dogs can only go so far since they are tied up. A stranger who doesn't realize they are on leads might feel threatened (or just an asshole) and kick at them. But we always take them in right away and they are never out for more than 10 minutes at a time, usually less.
Friday when I was getting ready for work Ed had put her on the bed. She laid down on her side and I saw these huge bruises on her chest and in her groin area. It was awful. Ed was off so he took her to the vet. The vet checked her gums and noticed the bruising there as well. She instantly thought it was rat poisoning. We have no idea how she could have gotten into any. Obi is perfectly fine. You would think he would be sick too since they are always together. They did some blood work but we won't get the results back until Monday. They gave her an IV and a cone so she wouldn't pick at it. The vet told us it was good we brought her in because she wouldn't have made it through the weekend. She stayed there Friday night which is kinda scary because no staff stays there overnight.
Saturday morning we were told we could bring her home but when we got there the vet said we should bring her to the Animal ER because her platelet count was low. Since we weren't getting the lab results back until Monday the vet wasn't for sure it was rat poisoning (especially since she was eating and drinking so well) and that it could be a clotting disease. They had started her on Vitamin K that morning to help with the clotting. The poison takes 4 weeks to leave the system and Aurra will have to stay on the vitamin K for at least 6 weeks to make sure her platelets are functioning properly. Vitamin K is very expensive. Poor Aurra was completely swollen. She had internal bleeding and had blood all underneath her skin. She looked horrible. She had blood in her urine. It was awful. The vet wanted us to bring her to the other clinic so she could have constant monitoring since our vet's office would be closed until Monday morning. She told us we may have to do a plasma transfusion which are extremely expensive. We paid our bill ($550) and as we were sitting in the waiting room I had Aurra on my lap and noticed she was bleeding from her neck. The vet said she wasn't clotting and they had done a test there earlier. She told me to apply pressure on the spot.
When we got the the ER she had stopped bleeding. An assistant took her from us and of course I got all upset thinking about losing her and thinking how much we can afford to spend to save her. It's awful when you have to think about such things. You don't want to have to put a dollar amount on your pet's life but we have no money. Plus I think because I just found out I can't have children of my own and now I'm being faced with losing Aurra who is like our baby it was just overwhelming. The ER vet was very nice. He said he didn't think it was a platelet disease because she was just barely low. He said the lack of clotting would happen if she were severely low and he definitely thinks it was poison. He said we could leave her there over night or for the weekend and they could do bloodwork in house to make sure, or we could take her home since she was eating well and her heart and breathing were stable and we would just monitor her over the weekend and wait for the bloodwork results on Monday, thereby saving us money. Of course if anything should happen or change we could just bring her back. We opted to take her home and give her the doses of vitamin K ourselves. We were told to leave the pressure pack on from where her IV was for 4 hours. On the way home blood started gushing through the bandage. I didn't realize she had tucked her little paw underneath her which caused the wound to really open up.
Yesterday was pretty scary. She didn't really eat and slept most of the time. Her urine was completely red. She bled on her back and under her neck occasionally as well as from her IV wound after we took her bandage off. We were suppose to leave it on 4 hours, we left in on for 9. She did get up and jump off the couch which really scared me. Her skin was so full with blood I thought she would explode. The ER vet said she had bleeding probably in her stomach and it was just pooling under her skin. The vitamin K would help but it takes 8 hours before it kicks in. He was most worried that she would have bleeding on the brain but even if that were the case there was nothing he could do for her.
She slept alone last night in the kitchen. I got up every hour to check on her. She looks soo much better this morning. Her bruising is much darker purple but her swelling isn't as bad and her urine is yellow. All of these are good signs! She took her 3rd dose of vitamin K and is sleeping. I have to bring her back to our regular vet tomorrow morning (good thing I'm off) to get her checked and get the blood work results back. We still don't understand how she got poisoned. There are cats in the back half of the yard where our dogs can't reach but they fine, Obi is fine, the squirrels are fine. Ed talked to Ben the maintenance man and he said he didn't put out any rat poison. The vet said perhaps someone set out poisoned food and Aurra got to it first, which could be, but the cats would have gotten to it when the dogs were inside. The vet also said perhaps Aurra ate a rat that had been poisoned which could be, but I doubt it. It's been a scary few days but it looks (crosses fingers) as if she's doing better. I'm about to go check on her.
Friday when I was getting ready for work Ed had put her on the bed. She laid down on her side and I saw these huge bruises on her chest and in her groin area. It was awful. Ed was off so he took her to the vet. The vet checked her gums and noticed the bruising there as well. She instantly thought it was rat poisoning. We have no idea how she could have gotten into any. Obi is perfectly fine. You would think he would be sick too since they are always together. They did some blood work but we won't get the results back until Monday. They gave her an IV and a cone so she wouldn't pick at it. The vet told us it was good we brought her in because she wouldn't have made it through the weekend. She stayed there Friday night which is kinda scary because no staff stays there overnight.
Saturday morning we were told we could bring her home but when we got there the vet said we should bring her to the Animal ER because her platelet count was low. Since we weren't getting the lab results back until Monday the vet wasn't for sure it was rat poisoning (especially since she was eating and drinking so well) and that it could be a clotting disease. They had started her on Vitamin K that morning to help with the clotting. The poison takes 4 weeks to leave the system and Aurra will have to stay on the vitamin K for at least 6 weeks to make sure her platelets are functioning properly. Vitamin K is very expensive. Poor Aurra was completely swollen. She had internal bleeding and had blood all underneath her skin. She looked horrible. She had blood in her urine. It was awful. The vet wanted us to bring her to the other clinic so she could have constant monitoring since our vet's office would be closed until Monday morning. She told us we may have to do a plasma transfusion which are extremely expensive. We paid our bill ($550) and as we were sitting in the waiting room I had Aurra on my lap and noticed she was bleeding from her neck. The vet said she wasn't clotting and they had done a test there earlier. She told me to apply pressure on the spot.
When we got the the ER she had stopped bleeding. An assistant took her from us and of course I got all upset thinking about losing her and thinking how much we can afford to spend to save her. It's awful when you have to think about such things. You don't want to have to put a dollar amount on your pet's life but we have no money. Plus I think because I just found out I can't have children of my own and now I'm being faced with losing Aurra who is like our baby it was just overwhelming. The ER vet was very nice. He said he didn't think it was a platelet disease because she was just barely low. He said the lack of clotting would happen if she were severely low and he definitely thinks it was poison. He said we could leave her there over night or for the weekend and they could do bloodwork in house to make sure, or we could take her home since she was eating well and her heart and breathing were stable and we would just monitor her over the weekend and wait for the bloodwork results on Monday, thereby saving us money. Of course if anything should happen or change we could just bring her back. We opted to take her home and give her the doses of vitamin K ourselves. We were told to leave the pressure pack on from where her IV was for 4 hours. On the way home blood started gushing through the bandage. I didn't realize she had tucked her little paw underneath her which caused the wound to really open up.
Yesterday was pretty scary. She didn't really eat and slept most of the time. Her urine was completely red. She bled on her back and under her neck occasionally as well as from her IV wound after we took her bandage off. We were suppose to leave it on 4 hours, we left in on for 9. She did get up and jump off the couch which really scared me. Her skin was so full with blood I thought she would explode. The ER vet said she had bleeding probably in her stomach and it was just pooling under her skin. The vitamin K would help but it takes 8 hours before it kicks in. He was most worried that she would have bleeding on the brain but even if that were the case there was nothing he could do for her.
She slept alone last night in the kitchen. I got up every hour to check on her. She looks soo much better this morning. Her bruising is much darker purple but her swelling isn't as bad and her urine is yellow. All of these are good signs! She took her 3rd dose of vitamin K and is sleeping. I have to bring her back to our regular vet tomorrow morning (good thing I'm off) to get her checked and get the blood work results back. We still don't understand how she got poisoned. There are cats in the back half of the yard where our dogs can't reach but they fine, Obi is fine, the squirrels are fine. Ed talked to Ben the maintenance man and he said he didn't put out any rat poison. The vet said perhaps someone set out poisoned food and Aurra got to it first, which could be, but the cats would have gotten to it when the dogs were inside. The vet also said perhaps Aurra ate a rat that had been poisoned which could be, but I doubt it. It's been a scary few days but it looks (crosses fingers) as if she's doing better. I'm about to go check on her.