Dogs are not our whole lives....

Dogs are not our whole lives but they make our lives whole. ~ Roger Carras

A dog and his boy

Ferrous Blue, our crazy beloved weim was acting really funny last night. We had got home from a lovely dinner with friends, put E to bed, and we were getting ready for the big game. Ferrous was retching and restless, and his stomach was large and distended. Brian and I didn't even hesitate - I yelled for Brian to take him to the Pet ER and I'd call him with directions.  Those were all the tell tale signs of bloat. Bloat is when a dogs stomach is twisted into a figure 8 and can cause a host of problems. Weims are super prone to it, so we have been pretty educated on key symptoms and what to do. It has a 50% mortality rate. It is very very scary. Brian had to have driven like a formula racer, because he arrived not to long after I called the ER to tell them Ferrous was coming and we were pretty certain it was bloat. They rushed him to x-ray to see the extent of the torsion. They determined it was going to require emergency surgery and that they needed to stabilize him before they could do anything. Ferrous has a lot of "spirit" and was not too happy to be feeling so uncomfortable. By this time it was 10pm. They didn't get him stabilized till after 12am. The surgery went really well, and we caught the bloat super early so there was no dead tissue or spleen damage. He was woke up at around 5:30 am. We talked to the vet and she assured us he was doing well, but that things were going to be tricky because of the chance of toxemia which is noted by an irregular heart beat. We were also told we could see him at noon. E woke up and was not happy that Ferrous was not home. I took E to school trying to get my mind off of everything. E had a blast with his buds and if was nice to see my BMF's. We then hopped in the car and met Brian at the ER. We then got to go into an exam room to see Ferrous for a little bit. So Brian and I went in expecting to see Ferrous a little out of it and in pain post op, but still cognisant of his surroundings and his parents! We got the complete opposite. He was is pretty severe pain, really uncomfortable, and not very sure who we were. It was heavy realization that he is doing a lot worse than we thought, and the recovery from this surgery was going to be really tough. We laid with him and tried to snuggle him and he fell asleep. The vet tech came in and was talking us through the next 12 hours. Ferrous kept laying his head in her hands. That made me feel very good. They were buddies. They then took him away, and E started crying...shouting Ferrous over and over again :(. We came home and all took a marathon nap. I just got off the phone with the Vet and he is sedated because he was so "spirted" and he has not eaten like they hoped he would. The house is very quiet, the couch in our family room is lacking a large blue snuggler in between Brian and I, and E is trying very hard to figure out where his buddy is. Ferrous papa is our papa. We picked him out at birth, and he thinks he's people - not a dog. I love him and hate him being away from us. Please send some healing thoughts to papa. He needs 'em big time.

baby Ferrous

Ferrous in the Chesapeake