Another one of those days. The sort I seem to get a lot.
This morning one of my dogs started having fits. She had two in quite close succession, then a third. Although the third was shorter it was more challenging, because the children were in the room and witnessed it. This led to my son having a meltdown. He loves our dogs, and it was a frightening thing to see. He also knows that 14 is very old for a dog, so he worries she will die. I had to soothe frightened dog and hysterical son.
Once I’d calmed them both down I explained to my son that him getting upset will scare Pendle more. It’s important to soothe her and keep her calm, even though we’re frightened we have to show her our calm faces.
I rang the vet while my daughter did my sons exercises with him. A few minutes later the dog had a fourth seizure, and this time my son stroked her and looked after her. He did really well.
I had to leave the dog for a few minutes while I dropped my son off at school. I didn’t want to leave her, but I had to warn his teachers that he might be distracted and upset. He’d insisted on taking a photo of the dog to school with him, and was very tearful and anxious about her when I dropped him off. My daughter reacts differently to worry, she closes down and goes quiet. I offer her opportunities to speak, and she will when she needs to, but usually she’s much quieter.
Having dropped my son at school I took the dog to the vet. She had another seizure as we crossed the car park, shorter again. Then she threw up all over the waiting room – everyone else waiting to see the vet discretely edged their pets to the other side of the room.
She had another, very short seizure while we were in with the vet. I was glad, in a way, that the vet had seen it. Pendle has a history of miraculous recoveries as soon as the vet gets near her.
They kept her in today for observation, and although she hasn’t had another episode since this morning they are keeping her in overnight to do a CT scan tomorrow. Of course my son was very upset to hear she wasn’t coming home tonight. Really upset. We went to the hospital to see her, and I was heartened by how much healthier she seemed, how she was moving around happily. My son was pleased to see her, but when they took her away again he went into full meltdown.
He can understand the reasoning, he knows she’s in the best place, and he wants her to get better. But the disruption to his routine of not having her here overrides that.
He calmed quickly, and is hoping she can come home tomorrow. She’s 14 and has never had seizures before, so they’re concerned but hopeful. I could do with a quieter day tomorrow. So much for back to school meaning back to routine!
- – -
A brief background – we have two dogs. Pendle, AKA ShaggyDog (for obvious reasons) and Kim AKA HoudiniDog (she used to escape a lot).
[...] Comments « Dogs, worry and wishing for quiet [...]