Days 5 & 6 - No Cooking-Sick Dog turned into Surgery

Where to even begin, my poor sick puppy. I have a 4 year old English Bulldog. His name is Gotti, he is a happy little lovey puppy, and since my other dog is 8 years old I can still call Gotti my puppy! Well Tuesday (Day 4, Turkey burger for lunch and breakfast for dinner day) morning, he didn't meet me at his food bowl as he normally does. Normally my feet hit the floor in the morning and he runs to his food bowl and waits for me to feed him. When I was all done getting ready he had finally at least eaten his food, but still I knew something was off so I kept an eye on him when I got home. Wednesday morning same thing happen, i put food in his bowl and he was not where to be found, well he was still in his doggie bed. When I left about an hour later, he still hadn't eaten his food. I had no choice but to go to work, we don't get doggie sick days, but called the vet and was able to get an appointment that afternoon. Well then everything just kept going wrong. Went to the vet and she even knew he wasn't acting like himself. He hasn't been there in awhile, but with all the medical problems that come with an English Bulldog, I used to feel like I spent more time at the vet then I did at home. She was concerned with how he was acting and did the normal check in stuff. Then decided she wanted to do blood work and a urinalysis. Once she received the blood work back she came and got me real quick. Here she is speaking gibberish to me with a print out that looks like another language, and telling me we have some major issues. My poor Gotti had almost no red blood cells, she wanted me to go to this Doggie ER place, as they would have better equipment to find out what happened and what is going on but they are a few thousand just to get in the door. So I had to ask what my next option was, we did x-rays so that she could try to see if she could find the problem. She thought maybe something with his spleen, but that is more common in older dogs. But not ruling anything out with this breed. After a few x-rays and the area around his spleen just continued to come out blurry, she thought the blur might be blood. She used a needle and confirmed her thought that he was internally bleeding. Since I couldn't go to the doggie ER, she gave me some meds, and said if he gets through the night we will do Emergency exploratory surgery first thing in the morning. Well I didn't sleep that night, I just laid on the floor and watched my poor sick puppy. I don't have kids, these are my "kids". Luckily we made it to Thursday morning and I dropped him off at the vet and went to work. I couldn't sit at the vet all day and go nuts, so I figured work is closer than my house is to the vet and it would help keep my mind occupied! Four LONG hours later the vet called. Somehow this puppy lacerated his spleen. I have racked my brain and cant figure out how, he hasn't gone anywhere there is nothing he could fall off of other than the futon he goes on, but its a futon it is maybe a foot off the floor, that would not have done this kind of damage. Any way, how he did it aside, she said it was a miracle that he is alive, and that I must have had some good Karma coming back to me for him to make it. Most cases she has seen like that , the dog passed the night that it happened. From seeing the days that he started not to act himself, the assumption is that this happened Sunday or Monday, so how he made it to a Thursday morning surgery is a miracle, and a blessing. From his spleen being lacerated, it ended up getting swollen and rupturing. They were able to show me photos, which I want to try and see if they will send me today. They removed it all and now he has no spleen. He does not need that to survive, however it does help fight infections. Now with a dog that is basically allergic to himself, this will be a problem. He is just a high maintenance puppy, but he is worth it! A bath every other day, and a lot of daily maintenance but very manageable. I couldn't pick him up to take him home until the evening, but I was allowed to visit him and lay with him in the afternoon, they figure it is comforting for him to have me there, and all he did was sleep whether I was there or not, but when he opened his eyes he knew I was with him. Here is a picture from my visit.

So, the Dr. made sure that I understood we are not in the clear yet. Although he made it through surgery and he is very lucky, we are not in the clear. When they remove the spleen, they have to tie off the other end. Doing that the "bad" blood that was there is now being sent back into circulation so the next 48 hours are critical. We just need to make sure that his body accepts the changes and keeps going. This dog is a true trooper so I hope we will be OK. He has some great medicine that makes him quite loopy so last night at home was interesting, but at least I knew he wasn't in pain. He was just sleeping, and yes I kept checking to make sure he was still breathing. :) This morning I dropped him back off at the vet so I could go to work. I could not get the day off, and Gotti could not be left alone. He loves going to the vet, maybe because he basically grew up there because of all his issues. He is a bulldog, so cherry eye was the main issue for a long time with many surgeries and still is an issue. But he was happily walking back into the vet today even after what happened yesterday. Although I had to physically do everything on my own, like carry him up and down 3 flights of stairs and try to open car doors, and the apartment door, etc. I can't believe the emotional support that was out there for me and Gotti from friends and family. I kept updated posts on facebook and the support was amazing. I never felt alone. Thank you to everyone for everything. And I am hoping to get back to cooking this evening. Maybe Ill even make it a Cooking with Kay-Kay, Gotti and Rocko(My chihuahua). Maybe in a few weeks, I will even make some dog treats. They are home made so I know what is going into them and the dogs love them! But I will get back on track with cooking and will keep everyone posted. Just wanted to explain where I went for two days, I didn't fall off track of updating daily, I just didn't cook or eat, so I never thought about posting, and every thought was on my puppy. Dog lovers I am sure understand! Hope to post more later with an official cooking Day 7 post. Thanks for listening to the update.