Anything Goes Thursday: Our first baby

My favorite picture of Elle when she was 4 years old. She is now 8. 

As some of you might have read on Monday, we almost lost our 8-year-old husky/lab Elle on Sunday. It was scary, crazy, overwhelming, and just plain awful. She is on the mend and we could not be happier.

On Saturday night, Bob took Elle to his brother's house to watch the Lions game and let Elle play with their husky Layla. It is not uncommon for Elle to move pretty slowly the day after she plays and it is not uncommon for her to favor a paw or two (like sore muscles) after playing with Layla. When Sunday came around, she was pretty lethargic, which seemed pretty normal to us.

As the day went on though, she was really barely moving and needing help to get outside. I was gone at a family birthday party with our car that has car seats. Bob just thought that she probably injured her paw and was just tired, which happens often after Elle rough houses with another dog.

When I got home around 4 p.m. from the party, Bob was cooking some bacon. I tried to give Elle a piece and she barely moved her head to even smell it. She would not eat it. I touched her paws and she was not tender to them, so I began to think something else was seriously wrong. I felt her tummy area and she seemed uncomfortable when I did that. So I again thought something was wrong. I told Bob that I thought she needed to go to the emergency vet. We carried her to our car and Bob took off and I stayed back with the kids.

When I got a phone call about 20 minutes later, I was not expecting to hear "They said that if we had not gotten her to the vet in the next 2 hours, she would have died!" Bob was speechless, I was speechless, and we were both very scared and wondering what had happened to our poor Elle, who seemed so fine just the day before. Elle was bleeding internally and dying.

The vet said that it could be one of three things causing her bleeding:

1. Her liver, which had elevated numbers back in April and we had an ultrasound then that showed it was OK.
2. A tumor that had ruptured. (Her ultrasound in April showed no tumors, but could have missed something.)
3. Rat poison

At first, we both thought that it had to be one of the first two options. Maybe they missed something in April. Maybe we should have continued testing her to make sure her liver was OK. 

As we waited in the waiting room (I met Bob at the vet), we began to think of all the would have, should have, could have situations. But the bottom line is we just wanted her to be OK. 

When Elle's blood work came back, it showed that the most likely cause was RAT POISON!

We live in a city area and yes have rats and yes have laid poison down, but Elle never goes in the garage by herself, or so we thought. We thought she would never touch it. We thought it would be OK. IT WASN'T!

Luckily out of the 3 possible causes, rat poison was actually the most reversible and should not have any lasting side effects.

Elle was placed in an oxygen tank for several hours to help her breath. She was given a plasma blood transfusion. And she was give vitamin K, which is the antidote to rat poison. As of today, she is so much better. We had her checked out at our vet's office on Tuesday and some of her numbers weren't perfect, so I have to have her checked again on Friday. But she is eating, drinking, resting, and wagging her tail. She looks to be making a complete recovery. 

Prior to this incident, I had really become annoyed with Elle. Dealing with 2 babies left little to no time for our first baby, our dog. We were taking her for granted. We love our dog and are once again treating her like the princess she deserves to be!

Here are some things we didn't know before going through this:

1. Digested rat poison can take up to three days to start to show signs in dogs. 
2. If your dog is acting sick, check its gums. You want them to be pink like your lips. Elle's were white, which meant she was bleeding internally.
3. Trust your gut. (We already knew this one, but still seemed like it should be said. It saved Elle's life!)

Elle with Calan when he was a newborn. (Photo by Purpletree Photography)

Elle with Maisie. She likes the kids best with they are not mobile. 

Elle home and resting after her very scary ordeal.