Zoey's Trip to the Vet's

    The past 5 days have been a bit of a blur  

around here.  Zoey,
our 5-yr old beagle has been under the weather.  Starting on Saturday she began eating grass and vomiting.  Then she developed diahirria.  By Monday she had stopped eating but the diahirria got worse...just brown liquid, w/o a formed stool.  I didn't like the color of it either...really a reddish brown...and I 

worried that she was passing blood! 

       I had to work in the shop in Cooperstown on Tuesday and when I left for work Fanny, the older dog, and Jeff were laying on the bed but Zoey was on a blanket on the floor.  She looked so sad.  It really scared me.  I wanted to call Jeff during the day to see how she was but was afraid he'd say she had died so I didn't.  When I got home the house was quiet.  Usually when a car (ours or not) pulls into the driveway the dogs go crazy, sounding the 'alarm'.  The quiet really scared me but when I opened the door Zoey came to greet me!  She was weak but her tail was wagging.  Jeff and Fanny were right behind her and Jeff said that was the longest distance Zoey had walked all day.  When he had the dogs outside in the afternoon, Zoey laid down and couldn't get up so he had to carry her back into the house!  He said he was really sure we were going to lose her that afternoon. Fanny and I laid on the bed  with Zoey while Jeff sat at his computer for most of the night.  We never had supper and we sat there until after midnight when I finally made another pot of coffee.  When Zoey woke me up around 6:30am to go out, I found that she had done 'it' on the kitchen floor during the night.   So while she was outside I grabbed a spatula and a baggie and scooped up her 'deposit' from the floor with the idea that we could it take to vet's when we got an appointment.  After the dogs were back inside and another pot of coffee was brewing, I called and was able to make the appointment for that afternoon.

   Zoey sat in the chair by my computer all day yesterday, napping.  She wasn't interested in eating.  When it was time to leave for her appointment I just called out 'who wants to go for a car ride?' and Zoey was the first to the door, wagging her tail!  Fanny went along for moral support.  We went to Walmart first to pick up Jeff's Rx's because he was afraid we wouldn't be in the mood to do it after seeing the vet.  He even bought Zoey a container of chicken broth while in the store!  

   When we got to the vet's I took Zoey's stool sample and went inside to check in.  The vet's were following social distancing and we were given a beeper and told to wait outside or in our car.  Zoey was  interested in the lawn around the vet's building so Jeff kept walking her and she  smelled enough other dogs and cats to make her very happy.  Finally after half an hour or so, the beeper went off and we went inside.

   Zoey was tested for Parvo and Lyme.  The results were 1/1:  she doesn't have Parvo, but does have Lyme's.  She was also tested for Anaplasmosis, another tick- carried blood disease, but that came back negative. They tested her for internal parasites and luckily, that was negative, too.  They wanted to run a generic panel on her urine but she wouldn't or couldn't pee for them so they gave me a 'catch kit'...a tray, syringe and vial...and told me to do a 'clean catch' and bring it in the next morning.  They also found that she had an ear infection so they swapped out her ears and put in some ointment.  She wasn't too thrilled to have her temperature taken rectally or to have a rectal exam (she had been rubbing her butt on the ground lately). And boy, did she squeal when she had blood drawn and when she got a couple of injections!  Beside the 'clean catch kit, they ended up sending us home with anti-vomiting pills, special canned dog food and packets of fortified flavor enhancer, Metronidazole-an

antibiotic tablet and a tube of ear ointment. The visit had cost nearly $400!

   Zoey seems a little better today.  She has finally started eating the canned dog food but obviously isn't thrilled with it.  She did 'beg' and eat bites of Danish from both of us and took her antibiotic buried in a spoon of peanut butter without any problems.  I've got to give her a anti-vomiting pill around 3pm.  Right now, Zoey is napping next to Jeff.  (Fanny is asleep on the couch next to me!) And we've had 2 phone calls from the vet's (one from the vet himself) to check up on Zoey and to tell us more test results.  I'm glad this saga is about over.  I wish I could sleep like the dogs and Jeff.  Maybe I'd feel better, too.