Not an expected visit, Barely Live, The Hill
Starting Thursday night Elsa and Sadie switched roles, with Elsa being the one that developed uncontrollable diarrhea. It was pretty bad. I hoped like Sadie, the passing of time would help but there was one difference, in the pools of brown liquid there were also some bundles of grass/organic matter. I wondered just how much grass she had eaten, something she will do on the down low if I leave her unsupervised in the yard too long.
So when I got home Friday night there were more accidents on the pool deck, at least for the most part she would let loose out there. I was concerned but still hoped she just had to get it all out of her system, she wasn’t eating but she was still drinking water. Well an hour or so after I got home I saw Elsa walking in a way I recognize, it was a precursor to throwing up. I tried to get her out to the pool deck but she let loose en route, throwing up a ton of mostly water by the slider and then more outside. It was at that moment I became officially concerned.
I had scenarios in my head where potentially she ate so much organic matter that she had a GI obstruction that would not only cause the diarrhea but throwing up as well. I called Cindy to fill her in. I decided that I wanted to take her the the 24 hour vet, to be safe. If something serious would happen as a result of me being passive about the problem I would not ever be able to forgive myself. Elsa is basically my child, the reason I am able to still maintain basic life functionality at this point and time. I called the vet and told them I would be there within the hour. This was definitely not the way I anticipated my Friday night to go.
We pulled up to the vet a little after 8. I was happy to see the waiting room was empty. Cindy and I actually had been here once before a few years ago after Elsa got stung in the face and started to swell up. I described her symptoms to both the counter staff and again to a vet tech before the actual vet came in, a younger woman who seemed very nice. Despite being in a foreign environment Elsa was relatively calm and I could tell she was comfortable with the vet, which was great. After describing all the background the vet said they would take her back for an exam, Elsa went with her without a huge fuss, again somewhat surprising but welcomed.
After maybe 15 minutes the vet returned, saying the physical exam was not bad, they said she had a slightly elevated temperature and heart rate but that was likely just from being nervous. She gave me several options, one of which included doing an xray to ensure there is no blockage. I told the vet that was the primary reason I brought her in, to make sure she did not have a GI obstruction, so I authorized her to take x-rays which again, took less time than I expected.
I was relieved when the x-rays showed no blockage. The vet suggested a few outgoing treatment things she could do, a shot to control nausea for 24 hours, a subdermal fluids injection to make sure Elsa was hydrated and a few cans of GI specific dog food, all of which I agreed to. I got home a little before 10, relieved that the news was mostly good. By Saturday morning Elsa’s appetite had returned and she hungrily devoured the canned GI food, she seems to be a big fan of it. There were no more unplanned “deposits” on the floor or pool deck either.
My Saturday was pretty busy, I did a bunch of small tasks which can add up to a good chunk of time. I got groceries, wrapped presents, and went about addressing, signing, and stamping christmas cards that I am sending out to family and friends. I used to always offload this task, this may be the first time I have done it myself, I am not quite sure. Saturday night I live streamed, which I was supposed to do originally on Friday but obviously that got postponed. I was feeling sort of tired and low energy but felt obligated to do it since I had announced the stream earlier in the week on social media. I gave away a lot of stuff which I thought was appropriate since it was two weeks from Christmas. In retrospect I probably gave away too much. I bet a third of the stream was just me managing the logistics of the giveaways.
My Sunday was relatively slow paced. I spent a lot of time at my computer desk in the morning. After doing my weekly bill paying session I then moved straight into packing/shipping all of the stuff I gave away on the stream. It took awhile, I wasn’t ready to head out for coffee until nearly 11AM.
In the middle of the afternoon I found myself outside doing a couple chicken things. Sadie and Elsa were outside with me. I took a seat in the shade on the hill by the pool cage. In short order Sadie came and laid down to the right of me and Elsa to my left. We just sat there, doing nothing but observing the scene in front of us for a good 10 to 15 minutes. I do not sit quietly in contemplation very often but in that moment I appreciated the stillness.
Ali and Shugs were coming back later in the afternoon. Sadie had been bull rushing the garage door every time I would go out it for a few days in the hope I was taking her back home. She really misses Ali when she is away for more than a few days. I loaded up Sadie and Elsa for the trip, Elsa loves Shuggs and Ali and always gets very excited to see them. We got a recap of their trip, the primary reason for it being for Ali to attend the graduation ceremony for her masters which she recently completed. They also visited New Orleans but it sounded like they had a pretty tame experience compared to what can go down on Bourbon Street. I recanted my various tales of dog diarrhea, a great conversation starter.
Last night I ignored the large volume of DVR content I was building up and just spent most of my night hanging in WoW, because I felt like it. This week is my birthday, hooray. I am not quite sure if there will be anything at all significant to mark to occasion, I may just go ride an EUC and grab dinner at a bar.