A close one

I had my blog post all written in my head. I was going to have to say that Lucy was gone. But how was I going to explain it? I couldn't explain it to myself, let alone Charlie, or any human.

It started last Monday night, when I was gardening for a couple hours, and Lucy was doing her usual backyard routine of taking a nap, then playing hide-and-seek behind our bushes, then picking a rock or two to kick to herself and chase. But that night, she got REALLY sick. The vet told us on the phone that she probably ate something weird, it got stuck, it'll pass. Give her chicken and rice.

A few days later, she really wasn't better, two days after that, she was BAD. Couldn't stand up, couldn't move without something coming out her rear, so lethargic that she wouldn't come to me. Patrick texted me at midnight (he was up north), saying his dad "Thinks she has parvo." Parvo? Isn't she vaccinated for that? And doesn't that kill them?

A 1am call to mom and some internet research concluded yes, parvo does kill the dog. Quickly and grossly.

Next morning - yesterday - took her to emergency vet, Patrick met me there with vaccination records. And the doctor was concerned about what wasn't there. Evidence of her last parvo shot. Crap. How could we overlook that? Patrick said they didn't send a reminder, and with all the puppy shots, it's easy to miss one, believe me.

So our vet was convinced she had parvo. Not good. At all. But she did the bloodwork. Lucy was shaking, and so were we. Just crying and crying and crying and shameful and embarrassed. I grabbed my camera (always in my purse to blog about some restaurant or store or event) and took what we thought were going to be some of the last pictures of Lucy. And again, how was I going to explain this on the blog.

An hour later, the vet came in, and by now, we could barely see her out of our puffy, red eyes and swollen cheeks. But the vet was surprised, she ran through all the bloodwork and sure enough, no parvo. Can't even tell you the relief. When I came home, I even put on my "I Love Lucy" shorts for celebration while I cleaned her mess.

But we're not out of the woods completely. She was super dehydrated, so they injected sub-cutaneous fluid, which looked like a volleyball. She is on tons of medication, and wearing a neato cone so that she can't lick her tush. We're going to our regular vet tonight for another check-up, but for now, it's lots of sad looks from our "little baby", who is confined to her crate and can only watch Charlie jump around (for joy) without her.

Of course, all Lucy wants to do is go back and play in the garden that started all of this mess.

UPDATE: Took her to the vet tonight, and she's tested negative for pancreitis. Collected stool samples for parasite test tomorrow. If that's negative, we'll test for valley fever. She is feeling better and we got even more meds and special food (of course) so we're combating at every angle. :)