Emergency Room!

 Yesterday was rough for Trixie.  We had dental appointments on the other side of town which meant we left about 8:45 to get there.  And we did get there — a half hour too early.  Trixie was in her crate as she always is when we leave the house.  We crate her because she is a mischief maker and no telling what she might get into.

So, we got finished at the dentist and headed to Hubs favorite Mexican restaurant.  Surprisingly it was open as they tend to close on a whim and you never know unless you call first.

The thing about our town is — it isn’t a huge place but it takes forever to get anywhere so by the time we got to the restaurant we were starving.  We ate and had just enough time to get back over here to get in the school pickup with a quick stop by the house to pick up a snack I promised The GrandGirl.  

We finally got home about 4:30, let Trixie out of her crate, leashed her and took her out to visit the yard.  We took her four times in the span of about 5 minutes (she goes out on a leash).  Uh oh, something wasn’t right.  She came in the house and started running — all over the place — and was frantic.  She wouldn’t sit down, she wouldn’t lay down, she wouldn’t do anything and finally spent an hour running in circles around the coffee table.

I told Hubs that something was very wrong and, I might be wrong, but I figure she had an UTI.  So, since it was already 6:30 p.m. and the vet was long closed we headed to the brand new emergency veterinary facility across the highway, no more than 10 minutes away

It was a nice, clean facility  but a little strange — it was one large room with a centrally located bank of exam tables and computer kiosks.  There were several vets, several vet techs, some lab personnel and some office personnel.  All of us were in the one big room.  There were some individual exam rooms along the periphery of the room.  But, the thing that caught my attention was — all the personnel were women.  Not that I have an issue with that, I certainly don’t, but it just unusual I thought. Especially since the majority of them were tall, blond and they all looked alike -Stepford Vets.  Sorry, I couldn’t resist but they were really quite lovely ladies and very compassionate and caring.

So, anyway, we spent a couple of hours here with about six of our new best friends — a black and white cutie with something wrong with it’s throat, a big white something who was clearly attached to it’s hooman mother and had to be touching her at all times, a tiny baby Schnauzer and two cats — one that was very vocal about being there.  Oh and a little Frenchie who had some sort of an accident and skinned his rump.  So, here we were.  

As our visit went on we learned that Trixie was in good health, was fat (hmmpppp), her chest sounded good, her temperature was normal and what they had to determine was whether her odd behavior was medical or emotional.  So, they presented me with an estimate of possible courses of action and the estimate was teetering dangerously close to the $1000 mark.  So, since I suspected that she was having a bit of a UTI I declined all the blood work and went for the urinanalysis.  

As I suspected it came back with her showing to be on the leading edge of an infection - not fully raging but there were white blood cells and bacteria.  So, they sent me home with the dog, an antibiotic and something to calm her down, that something being gabapentin.

So, I administer the antibiotic and about an hour later one of the gabapentin.  I could give her 1 to 3 tablets depending on what state of “calm” I wanted her in.  One was a gentle calm, two was more intense, and three she would be sedated.  I opted for one.

It did nothing.  This dog walked around the coffee table in a circle until 1 a.m. when I decided to give her another and put her in the crate she sleeps in.  She cried, she yelped, she growled and barked and up we got.  And down we went.  And up we got — All night.

Finally about 3 am I told her we had to go to bed — we had no choice because I was going to die if we didn’t so off we went and I had a solid 2 before it all started again.  So here we are, 6:30 a.m., I am miserably sleepy and dangerously tired, my hip is killing me from trying to sleep in the chair and here is Trixie. —

Yes, under my aunts crocheted blanket.  Sawing logs.  No noises, no stress, just easy peaceful sleep.  I won’t show you a photo of me.  It would break the internet.  

What a night.  I hope she is better today.