First things first: Bella is okay.
But let me start by bringing you up-to-date about Bella's health. On April 16th, Bella had a second steroid injection for her shoulder injury which lasted exactly 24 days. Resigned to pain management and medication, we started her on Metacam on May 13th.
The improvement was immediate and remarkable.
Bella seemed to realize she was no longer in pain and was initiating play with me and showing more eagerness to run now that she knew it would not leave her limping for days afterwards. We have still been taking it easy and slow at agility - no jumps or A-frame in her future, sadly.
But she's been doing really well and we were relieved to finally be able to provide a reprieve from her pain.
And then there was today.
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| I can't imagine what you're talking about. I am NOT high maintenance. |
Bella has, in the past, vomited bile in the morning due to her nervous, empty stomach. So I thought little of it and headed outside with her intending to holler at Jan that Bella left him a present in the master bedroom.
(Oh yes, it may be helpful regarding my state of mind to know that last week, Jan and I moved into the spare bedroom because, for whatever reason, Bella now refuses to sleep in the master bedroom. More on that someday in the future.)
Moving right along...
While we were out, I could immediately tell Bella didn't feel well as she chowed down on grass. I could see that kind of creepy, little smile she gives right before she hurls and encouraged her to "Get it out, honey. We've all been there."
All well and good until I came back in and started to clean up the mess she left in the bedroom. (Yes, I am awesome, I know. Thank you.)
As I cleaned up her puke, though, I noticed there were red bits of spew in it. I thought for sure it couldn't possibly be blood, right? I ran outside to poke through the puke she has deposited out there (oh the things we pet parents do) and found the same red splotches.
It scared the crap out of me.
Of course, this only begins to describe the start of my "awful, horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day" because after all of this, I went to work. Whereupon it became immediately obvious that the sole victim of the currently raging political firestorm was going to be: me. I can't carry on too much about that except to say the first thing I ate today was a Twix bar at 2:37 in the afternoon. That was also when I had my first cup of coffee. (Food I can live without. No coffee puts those around me at risk.)
Next up, there was a bit of a mishap with a volunteer project on which I'm assisting. And finally Jan, as a friend of mine noted, should have had just a little more "situational awareness" not to press me about which shower handle I preferred before he placed the order with the glass company. (Sorry, sweetie. Dan was the first person to get a smile out of me all day. Sorry it was at your expense.)
In the midst of all that, frantic phone calls to vets were made: Bella had recently had a series of vaccines at our primary vet - what were they? Is there any chance they caused this? Our Neuroligist had prescribed the Metacam for her shoulder. Could this be the cause? Dr. Sisson, please advice? Or could it be the behavioral medications prescribed by Dr. Dodman? In combination with the Metacam? Calling Tufts Behavioral Clinic, stat.
My primary vet wanted to see her in the office today but I wanted to wait to hear back from the specialists before setting up that appointment. Dr. Sisson from Angell Animal Medical Center responded immediately chastising us that we hadn't notified him earlier. We were to stop giving Bella the Metacam and cut off all food for 24 hours.
"So it goes..."
Which brings me to this moment where my dog is sitting behind me mumbling and muttering at the back of my head because "It is time for her after-dinner chicken!", don't ya know. Not that she had dinner but we had to get her behavioral meds in her somehow.
So that folks, is lame excuse #497 why I did not write the blog post I intended to tonight.
Bella, of course, seems fine, if a little disgruntled that she didn't get her dinner. I took her outside to run and play in an effort to distract her and she was totally game. She even, gasp!, played fetch for a few tennis ball tosses.
I'm sure she is going to be fine. I also know that folks out there have had their dogs on Metacam before. I was so concerned about Rimadyl but my Lab was on Rimadyl for 5 years and he never threw up blood. Were my concerns misplaced?
Dr. Sisson says once she has not thrown up for three days, we can restart the Metacam but I'm not sure I want to. Have you ever had a dog that threw up blood and successfully went back on Metacam?
PS - To add final insult to this "awful, horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day" while I was writing this post, my blog host decided to log me out. Luckily, I was able to salvage it and not have to re-write the entire thing.
I think I'm just going to go to bed and cuddle with my doggie now before anything else blows up on me.