Wednesday, February 3, 2010

can I go back to bed?

Before I start, everything is fine. I don't want any members of Preachers fan club to worry, he's fine. I had a bad night last night. I had a really bad pain in my shoulder blade that ran up into my neck. When I woke up my plan was to call my GP and see if I could get in. But when I went to let the dogs out Preacher didn't want to get up. I was really worried. Yesterday he was totally fine, running around, playing, eating great. This morning he didn't want to get up. When I did get him up he was very slow, a little shaky, breathing hard, and had trouble holding himself up to go to the bathroom.

I was on the phone with the vet in about two seconds. They couldn't get me in until 4pm. I told them he was breathing funny and they asked about the color of his tongue, was it at all purple. I looked but couldn't really tell, maybe? So I said "maybe". They said bring him right in. Of course on the way in I was thinking terrible thoughts in between trying to think positive thoughts. After working myself into a complete frenzy I called Tom. He said, very simply, I think he is having back pain like before. Ohhhhhh, right. Everything adds up. So I feel a little silly for the rush to the vet but in we go. My vet, THE best vet on the face of the earth, totally freaked out when they said I was bringing Preacher in with a purple tongue. He was in the middle of surgery, spaying a dog, and said he started removing ovaries as fast as he could! Anyway, Tom was right, he has a bad back. He was in a lot of pain but his blood work was perfectly normal, weight was good, oxygenation was perfect, all was good. Just a bad back. Don't get me wrong, I hate for him to be in pain and I don't want that for a second, but it's fixable. So Dr. Daigle give us pain meds and muscle relaxers...
We get home and I give him the muscle relaxer first. All wrapped in a dog treat. He promptly spits it out and Horatio dives in and eats it in about half a second. I feel the panic begin all over again. I am thinking a muscle relaxer for a Great Dane just might be bit much for a Chihuahua. I call the vet feeling like a huge idiot. Luckily I don't have to load him up with hydrogen peroxide and wait for him to start puking. They said it should be ok. He should just be tired.
So, can I start this Wednesday over?