First: Maggie is alive.
Second: She almost wasn’t.
All thanks to a cork. Which she ate. Which almost killed her.
I’m telling the story in hopes it will educate, inform, and inspire. And don’t we all love a good dog story, as long the the dog doesn’t die? This one didn’t, but it was pretty damn close.
It all started on Monday, June 13th, when Maggie began vomiting. At first I wasn’t particularly distressed; we all know owning a dog means cleaning up the occasional vomit on the rug. But the vomiting continued, and became so violent that her body actually was pushed backward by the force of her stomach expelling its contents. “Rocket vomit,” I’m going to call it. Lots of yellow fluid, with a bit of partially digested food. She was also thirsty–very, very thirsty, but she couldn’t keep it down before it flew out of her mouth. Needless to say, by now I’d called the vet, and got her in within a few hours. I suspected that she had an obstruction, especially since the dogs had discovered a nest of baby turkeys and Maggie had disappeared in the woods after working sheep, licking her lips. Very atypical of her.
But the radiograph showed no sign of a foreign object or a mass (whew), the pancreatitis test was negative, and the blood work was fine, so Dr. Dally (Spring Green Animal Hospital) suspected she just had a bad case of gastroenteritis. We came home, I withheld food that night and fed her rice with defatted chicken broth the next day. (You always keep a stock of it in the freezer right?) She ate a little, but barely moved all the next day. I figured she’d was exhausted from so much physical trauma, remembering how I felt the day after the Norovirus did its number on me. Finally, on Wednesday she perked up and seemed back to her usual self. We had company, and she was sweet and lively and hungry. She did vomit a tiny amount a few times in the next 5 days, but seemed happy and healthy otherwise.
And then. Tuesday the 21st, I took Skip to the clinic to have a rhinoscopy done by internist, Dr. Julie Bates. He’d started occasional sniffing or snorting about two weeks before, and it was getting worse. Grass seed in his nasal passage? (I was well aware that grass awns can sometimes migrate through a dogs flesh and do terrible things, so yeah, I was getting nervous.) The results were frustrating: No object, no placque related to aspergillus, but a small area of inflammation. While trying to sort out what to do next, I came home to discover that Maggie had been vomiting, a lot, while I was gone. Back to the vet.
Xrays again showed no obstruction, but her Amylase was up which suggested pancreatitis. She didn’t seem in enough distress for care in the clinic, she even ate some treats that Dr. John offered, so I took her home with some commercial low-fat food that I could supplement food I made for her. But as the afternoon wore on, she became quieter, and had no interest in her dinner at all. Hmmm. I thought we might have to take her back to the vet the next day. Little did I know.
When I woke up Wednesday morning, Maggie looked like she had swallowed a watermelon. Big enough for a family picnic. I could see it even from across the room. I bolted out of bed and ran to her; her belly was like a drum–“tympannic,” vets call it. Bloat. She looked like she had aged ten years–her eyes were glazed, her face pinched, and she stood hunched like an angry cat, a clear sign of abdominal pain.
We rushed her downstairs. I called my local vet while getting her into the car. We agreed she needed emergency care, so we rushed to the Veterinary Emergency Service in Middleton after he called them to let them know I was on the way. At this point, my panic had evolved into a kind of focused, committed intensity. Get Maggie to vet as fast as you can. Do not cause an accident on the way–for Maggie’s sake. Get Maggie to the vet. Now.
When I lifted Maggie out of her crate at the clinic, I could see that her bloat had slightly dissipated. Still swollen, still bloated, but not as badly. I had to wait a few minutes at the clinic, the melodrama of emergency clinics never ends, but someone came out for Maggie pretty quickly. I went over the history; then they took Maggie into the back for diagnosis, fluids (she was badly dehydrated), and pain medicine. After waiting what felt like forever to hear that she was stabilized, I went home, waiting to hear about my dear, sweet, spoiled, Princess Maggie.
It took thirteen days to get a diagnosis. No, wait, actually, it was only thirteen hours. Two radiographs had found nothing. An ultrasound found nothing. But Dr. Alicia Sibley did a contrast study that showed a rectangular object stuck at the distal end of her duodenum. (Please someone tell me if that’s “doo-oh-dee-num” or “doo-odd-o-num.) It showed that her GI tract was perfectly, and completely blocked, which had caused her stomach to fill up with fluid. They took over a liter –A LITER — of fluid out of her stomach. Dr. Sibley thinks that is why she began gastric dilation, (or torsion, or bloat, you pick the term). We both suspected that the car ride (who knew bad roads would be so good) helped her stomach to realign itself. But she still had this unidentified thing blocking her gut.
Maggie had the surgery the next day, after agreeing that she was stable, and middle of the night surgery wasn’t necessary or advised. After it was over, mid afternoon the next day, (or a month later, you pick), Dr. Sibley tortured me by making me guess what the object was. “It’s not really rectangular, except on its side. It is something you’d find in your kitchen on the counter.” My interest in guessing was minimal, and I hereby accept a medal for not shrieking WHAT THE HELL WAS IT into the phone. Okay, it wasn’t too hard to stifle myself: This is a veterinarian who I absolutely adore, who gave Willie another year of life by finding his liver cancer when three other vets couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him beyond the fact that he looked like he was dying. She is exactly the vet I want any time I have a veterinary emergency and I hereby demand that those never happen unless she is on duty. Wait, never, ever is better.
She finally told me what was in Maggie’s belly. It was a cork. A wine cork. An object basically designed to stop the flow of liquid. Or anything. But, a cork?We don’t drink wine, unless company brings it. It must have fallen off the deck in the garden when we had some folks over for dinner. Maggie has never eaten a non-food item in her life. At least, not that I know of. Granted, she defines “food” a bit differently than I do, but a cork? (Note: I’ve already mentioned this on my Facebook page, and several people commented that their dogs had eaten corks too. You might want to make a note.)
Okay, whew, we have a diagnosis and know what to do. The surgery went well. The next day, Maggie was doing well, ate some chicken, and the vet clinic said she was ready to go home. Home she went, wobbly on Gabapentin and the sedative Trazadon, (only given because I was afraid she’d go bonkers when we came to get her).
I took her out to pee, on leash of course. She peed and settled down in the living room now repurposed into a recovery room. I lay down beside her, overwhelmed with gratitude to be able to pet her sweet head.
And then. She slept all afternoon. Okay, she must be exhausted and I knew that she’d been sedated. Finally, in the late afternoon, I encouraged her to get up. She didn’t want to. Her eyes were getting glassy again. She refused food. She was hunched up again. Bad words were spoken inside of my brain. I called the clinic, successfully squelching OMG MAGGIE IS CRASHING AND I HAVE TO BRING HER IN RIGHT AWAY into: “I am concerned about Maggie and thought I should run what’s going on by you.” They agreed I should bring her in, so we did, Jim picking her up to put her into her crate.
I will just casually mention that, by this time, I have slept, uh, a few hours a night at best for way too many nights, I’m still trying to figure out what to do about Skip, and I am now, privately, unofficially, verging on PANIC NUMBER TWO.
Maggie was seen by yet another wonderful vet, Dr. Emily Evenson, who I’ve also met before and trust completely. She agreed that Maggie was in intense pain, and needed fluids and pain killers, and should stay overnight. We drove away, again. The clinic said “no news is good news, we’ll call you to check in sometime tomorrow morning between 4 and 10 AM.” You can guess how much I slept that night. I got a call in the morning to say that Maggie was “resting comfortably.” I have to admit that means nothing to a behaviorist. My interpretation of that phrase is “she is not barking, screaming or writhing.” But couldn’t a dog be flat-out miserable, as Maggie was in the living room that previous afternoon. But she’d gotten pain meds, and fluids for her dehydration, and was being monitored often. Okay. Good. Take a breath.
Finally, Saturday afternoon, about 24 hours from taking Maggie back, they called to say that she was doing great. GREAT! She was pushing her food bowl around to get the last molecules of food in it. Happy to go outside to pee. Pooped. We brought her home.
And she is okay. Really okay. I didn’t feel like she was out of the woods on Sunday, but then, her surgery had been Thursday afternoon, so I didn’t expect her to be frolicking. We kept her quiet, one us lay beside her all the time. Skip did too. I know this photo is also at the top of this post, but here it is again, but, well, I can put it in twice if I want to. It makes me happy.
Jim took this as I was lying on the LR floor beside Maggie. Skip, who has been quiet and worried-looking during this entire episode, came over and lay down beside her. Maggie had put her head on his neck–the adorsable factor was off the charts–and I asked Jim to get the camera and take a photo. By the time he did, she moved her head. But still. So sweet.
Maggie is much, much better today. Now it’s all about management. We’re very gradually beginning short leash walks. We keep her from licking or scratching. (She can reach the incision, but rather than use a cone we just keep someone beside her at all times.) No play with Skip, we don’t even take them outside together. We don’t let Maggie leap or jump up on anything. However, Maggie seems to adore, actually crave, lying up on things. She has numerous, comfy beds on the floor, but she has begged repeatedly to be allowed up on the couch or her favorite chair. We picked her up last night so she could cuddle beside me while we watched TV, but then picked her up to get her down. Jim covered the couch this morning to keep her off of it.
While I was writing the paragraphs above, literally, Maggie did this while I was in another room:
So much for all my obsessive management. Needless to say, Maggie is now shut into the room where I am writing this, having been gently escorted off the couch. After I broke out laughing. After I took the photo. By the weekend we’ll start much longer walks, probably off the farm where she won’t be tempted to play with Skip or work sheep. We’re told that she can work sheep and play with Skip a month from now. She and I will negotiate about the couch–I’m thinking by the middle of next week or so.
MEANWHILE, back on the farm: There’s really nothing to say but we’re trying to catch up from the week from hell (in which my beloved sister went back into the hospital–happy to say she’s out now, and our AC died when it was 96 outside, it’s still out.), take care of Maggie and keep Skip in condition to compete in trials. We had to miss a competition I’ve been over-the-moon excited about (Rush Creek, Ohio), and may make the next one in Illinois. It’s all up to Maggie
Before I go, I’ll tell you a funny story that I thought of when I was driving Maggie to the vet when she was bloating. I had that same determined, focused emotion when I got a call from Jim last year, when he was doing his weekly mowing in a nearby county park. The park is extremely hilly, and I worried about him using the county’s huge, industrial-sized mower on the steep slopes. He promised to always take his phone, and tell me where in the park he’d be mowing. One day the phone rang, it was Jim calling. I heard “Arghaur, gwahh, arg…”. And then it hung up. Whaaaa? My phone rang again just seconds later. “Arguargh, gharahgh, ugggghhhhh.” Hung up. Again. Okay, my husband is gravely injured, and lying underneath a piece of equipment the size of Connecticut.
The park was only about 12-15 minutes away. I will not tell you how fast I was going, but I will tell you that I felt as alive as I’ve ever been, like a race car driver at the top of her game. I felt like my husband’s life might depend on me, and I wasn’t as scared as I was committed. I got there in eight minutes. I knew which side of the park he was on, and I began running, running, running, up a viciously steep hill. If you know me, you know I have short, stumpy legs that are great at walking and hiking, and have the lung capacity of an asthmatic sloth. As I struggled up the hill, panting and sweating, I heard the sound of the mower! Yes! But wait, what if he had been thrown and the mower was just running in circles? Why else would he call me in such distress? I went back to running. And found my husband happily perched on top of the mower, saying “What are you doing here?” I couldn’t answer him for awhile, because of that need-for-oxygen thing, and then explained the phone calls. He said he hadn’t called. But apparently, his shirt pocket had.
People ask me if I was mad, but I never felt the slightest pang of anger. Just relief. Just like I feel now, waves of it, when my dear, sweet, cuddle-bunny Maggie–the dog who has taught and given me so much–is going to be okay. I know perfectly well that she could have died in the night. But she didn’t, and I am so very, very grateful.
I leave you with a photo of some flowers, because, you know, flowers make us happy. I hope you have some moments of happiness too, in a time that feels dark and dangerous is so many ways.
Debby Gray says
I’m so glad you Maggie has turned the corner. May you all get some rest and recover slowly but steadily.
I have a dog who is always finding items to eat. I spent his walks trying to survey the next 10 feet to pounce on items before he does.
HFR says
I was taken on a roller coaster ride just reading this so I can’t imagine what it was like for you and Jim. So glad all is well again and you can get some rest.
Martin says
Poor Maggie… I’m glad she’s alright. I wish all of you a speedy recovery – I know that kind of stress does a number on my own wellbeing.
Lisa Laughon says
So thankful for Maggie’s recovery!
Tammy says
What a story! I was holding my breath through much of it. What a relief to know that Maggie is recovering well after quite an event. I’ll never look at a wine cork the same way again.
Melf says
What a horrific experience. Thank goodness you have so many great vets who worked so hard to identify the issue. I am so very glad Maggie is okay and recovering. It takes a lot out of your body, doesn’t it? I hope you all are getting sleep and getting back to normal.
I had my very shy new puppy (7 months old) bolt on me last Friday night and pull his leash off my arm and out of my hand. He was lost for 4 nights in a park in the same heat. I can relate to the no sleep for days experience. We ended up live trapping him to get him home, and then we both slept. A lot.
May Maggie be herding again soon.
Meredith says
I can’t open Yahoo mail today for whatever reasons — but I was so disturbed by the title of your post that I went directly to the website and read about it. WHEW!!! I’m pretty sure that completely under-expresses YOUR feelings, but I was pretty relieved, too, when Maggie had her surgery and eventually made it out of the woods … No more wine drinking for you, Miss Maggie! (You can’t trust those dogs sometimes, and it has been a rough couple of …. decades for all of us, eh?)
Margret Abbott says
Thank you for leading with “Maggie is alive.”
I’m so glad she is home and will be fine.
I chuckled when I read how despite best efforts she climbed up on the couch. A picture is worth a thousand words and she looks very content laying on the pillow.
Thoughts and prayers as she (and the rest of you) continue to recover.
LisaW says
What a time! So happy Miss Maggie is on the mend. I actually had adrenaline pumping and flashbacks to some of our doggie dramas. And it looks like we’ve used the same decorator!
Moral of the story — drink boxed wine 😉
Kay says
Thank God Maggie had the two of you to help her and she made it through!
Frances says
So thankful! And that is such a heart warming photo of Skip and Maggie together. Wishing you a peaceful, uneventful few weeks while you all recover.
Wendy S. Katz says
I’m so so glad that Maggie pulled through. Thank goodness for talented and dedicated vets! Reading your account, I felt the horror of it in my body. I hope you all can rest and recover now.
Jen Gibson says
So glad Miss Maggie is okay!
Tshirts can help with incisions and licking, form fitting but not tight.
Hugs,
Jen
Nana~Mary says
Oh, Trisha, I’m so glad that Maggie is OK!! Isn’t it amazing how these four-legged creatures become trapped in our hearts!?
I can’t remember if I have shared this story here or not, but our “Obstruction” saga involved our daughter’s Springer Spaniel, Ladybug. My husband and I were dog-sitting for Ladybug, and she managed to counter-surf her way to two gorgeous ribeye steaks sitting on a plate. One of the steaks had bacon wrapped around it, with bamboo skewers holding the bacon in place. We immediately discovered what had happened and ran Ladybug to the emergency vet (the other one in Madison, not the one who helped Maggie.) She had emergency surgery, and when the vet called us, he was LAUGHING! Inside Ladybug’s stomach he found: 2 WHOLE ribeye steaks, 13″ of bamboo skewers, a wad of paper towels, and a rubber dog toy!!
Incidentally, I met a vet 3-4 months later who worked at the emergency vet hospital, and I started telling this story to him. He immediately brightened up and said, “You’re talking about Ladybug!!” Evidently, she was a legend at the vet. He hadn’t met her, but he heard all about her!!!
Ladybug went on to live a long, happy life (16 years!) and left us a year ago this month. We all miss her terribly.
Erin K. says
Happy to hear Maggie is feeling better. I hope Skip will be okay soon as well. I have to admit, potential emergencies for our pup make me a little nervous as our emergency vet clinics tend to be packed almost at all times. I’m so happy Maggie was able to be seen and treated quickly.
Linda Gingerich says
I am so glad you’re sweet Maggie is healing. Prayers for skip too. Thank you for sharing this. I never would have worried about a cork (except with puppies when anything can be ingested). And thank you for such a beautifully written story. If there’s reincarnation can I come back as one of your dogs?
❤️
CorgiHouse says
doo-ODD- de-num. 😁
So very, very happy to hear Maggie is on the mend! Very scary to go through that, and I know how gut-wrenching it is to see your beloved dog in so much pain and distress. Hope you can relax and rest up now!
But what about Skip’s nasal passages? Is he still having issues? I hope he has a simple solution. Enough vet drama for now!
Jocelyn Ludlow says
First off- Yay!!! So glad to hear Maggie is ok. Many gentle hugs to all of you!!
As for Skip- you mentioned his situation and we went through the same thing with Taz. It presented dramatically with nose bleeds at first. A panicked series of tests (scope, CT, biopsies etc) to rule out cancer. Ever start the grief stages before you even know what’s going ok? That was me. Anyhow in the end the dx was “shrug?? Bad runny nose…” aka: Lymphocytic-plasmacytic rhinitis
https://www.dvm360.com/view/nasal-disorders-dog-and-cat-proceedings
The bleeding eventually subsided, and switched to copious amounts of thick, gross, well, dog snot- all from only one nostril. We even removed our carpeting, it was just everywhere. We’d chase him around with a box of kleenex! We went through a variety of treatments- steroids, antibiotics, allergy meds, etc.
Some made him worse, others didn’t help much.
That was around the start of the pandemic, mid 2020.
Now, he still reverse sneezes, regular sneezes and coughs but not as much. The drainage is still gross, but he actually manages to clean it up before we can (*gag* but appreciated) although we’ll still step in the occasional unexpected puddle of dog snot or find it on the walls after a big sneeze.
We found meloxicam and zyrtec help. Also if he’s having a particularly rough time (allergies or he sniffed too much outside of something) I’ll chase him around with a can of spray saline to flush the nostril and he has a steriod inhaler with a puppy spacer.
Luckily while it’s chronic, it’s benign.
Anyhow long story, I apologize, but it’s rare-ish dog thing- and I know it helped me to find folks who know about it. Often vets don’t. Best of luck with those pups!
Also- I’ll say thanks for all you’ve done to contribute to a better understanding of dogs!
Paula T says
I feel for you! I’m so glad you were able to get emergency help and get Maggie taken care of. I live in an area right now where emergency vet services are an hour away. An hour! As you know that’s an eternity in an emergency. So whenever my senior dog is not feeling well, I’m watching her like a hawk.
Again glad for the happy ending. (but I don’t envy your vet bill)
Nancy Flynn says
As with most of your posts, I’m laughing thru my tears. And by the end I can breathe again.
Heal up Maggie, your sweet self is needed to remind us all that joy is the reason we do all of this. Feel better Skip, there’s work to do!
Carole says
Just reading about what Maggie (and you!) went through made me weepy. I’m so happy she is okay. May all four of you have the relaxing days you deserve after so many traumatic days.
Ayn says
Wow what an ordeal. So very happy to hear that Maggie will be okay. Like you, I avoid the cone in favor of constant vigilance. I have used t-shirts in the past to help prevent licking. I have also heard about a dog bodysuit. Hopefully, you will be able to get some rest. Never thought a dog would eat a cork and I have lab type dogs that eat all kinds of things that you would not think a dog would or could eat. Perhaps advise guests only to bring screw top wine in the future. The wine is just is as good and lot more wineries are foregoing corks.
Cheryl says
At the age of 10 my male saluki Smarti Jones…..named so as he almost didn’t survive a viral infection as a puppy……ate 3 not just 1 but 3 soft squeaky toys. Vomited up 2 but I had to go get the 3rd one out by surgery. Fortunately being a veterinarian I was able to retrieve it. At the age of ten eating toys. Dogs always surprise us. So glad to hear Maggie had a good outcome.
Beth says
So relieved to hear she is on the mend, but how scary and exhausting. We had an acorn incident here. Luckily it passed on its own. Ours not only doesn’t eat non-food, he very carefully chews even something as small as Cheerios so my guess is he swallowed by mistake while playing with it.
I hope the rest of her recovery is uneventful. I also hope you figure out what is up with Skip. I have a story involving rhinoscopy failing to find anything and my greatly missed Corgi Jack, but I’m not sure if I should share or not. Please let me know if you’d like to hear.
Michelle Hamil says
So happy for you all. Also know that fear. Mine had what turned out to be about an 8lb bag of digested dog food that my boy couldn’t poop out. I’d gotten an automatic Kong dispenser that would shoot out a stuffed Kong every 2-4 hrs while I was at work. I’d gotten it hoping it would help entertain my young Husky mix while I was at work. I didn’t know that you should put wet food in the Kong with the dry food. Because he was shut in the kitchen until I got home from work, he self-regulated his water intake. The Kong game went on for 2 weeks before he showed signs of distress. The vet guessed that the dry food took all the moisture from his stomach and he couldn’t pass the digested food. He lived! God bless Maggie and Skip!
Joanne Casey says
So glad your Maggie is okay and recovering! And you and Jim too! Tons of admiration for the Emergency Vet, who went above and beyond in a time where Emergency Vets are being pushed to their limits with time, lack of staffing, and volume of patients. She knew that with the x-rays and ultrasounds not showing obstruction, that Maggie was still critically I’ll and she saved your girl’s life!!!
No more wine for you Maggie! But she might deserve a little more of that comfortable couch, just for her preservation of getting on top of it LOL.
Good wishes for all of you, always!
Hali says
Whew! Good to know about corks. I’m glad Maggie is OK–thanks for saying that upfront. Yikes! That’s always my thought when I see a dog in a movie or show, “But what about the dog?”
Charlotte Kasner says
What a relief but what an awful thing to happen.
As I was reading this, I had a call from the training client that I saw this morning to say that her JRT was about to come home from the vet having snarfed a pile of chicken bones in the park after our session.
That felt bit surreal, but I took the opportunity to warn her about corks too:)
Jen Galligan says
So glad Maggie is on the mend. My girl has eaten a cork or two, but she chews them up and spits them out.
I can only imagine the vet bill!! Hopefully you have pet insurance.
Rachel Amov says
What a story! My Anatolian females are good at chewing on almost everything, they don’t swallow much, but they do chew, and we do have corks, scary that corks don’t seem to show up on the scans! It’s a good argument for screw top wine bottles!
KC Wilson says
Thank’s also for the story about Jim mowing. Sounds like what would happen in my family. Glad to hear Maggie is recovering. Have a good summer.
Iwona Bibillo says
Sending love ❤️ dogs are everything, so happy for you she is recovering well.
Vickie Julka says
Memorial Day weekend 2021 we were at our Door County house. We took our English Lab, Max for a walk on leash as there was a house nearby with a compost pile that he’d been interested in. As soon as we were a safe distance from that house (ha!) we took the leash off. Max took one devil dog look at us and ran straight for the compost pile with Mike on his heels. Sure enough he chowed down a couple of bites and was a happy dog. We finished the walk on leash. When we got home I knew he’d be tired and resting in his favorite place in the sun so I took him some water and his grooming tools. It didn’t take long to notice he was starting to have tremors and and had a far away glassy look in his eyes. Moments later he couldn’t stand up. That’s the panic I could feel in your story about Maggie! After many unanswered calls on a holiday weekend we called the Emergency Vet Hospital in Green Bay, an hour and a half away. The said get him there ASAP and they would have a gurney ready. Yet another example of your panic while driving to the hospital. The staff was wonderful, they rushed him in and diagnosed him with tremorgenic mycotoxin, the 4th case that spring. That tasty compost pile had black mold and our Max was very ill. We made our way back to our home feeling that he was in good hands and monitored 24 hrs./day. At 12:30 am we got the call that he had thrown up, aspirated and needed to be put on oxygen. By now, lack of sleep and another panic situation was taking its toll on us. By day 3 Max hadn’t eaten and they were worried about a blockage. Luckily, that was not the case. he was terrified, crusty from his ordeal, sick and needed to see us so we took his food and his favorite toys. He still couldn’t walk well and it was clear that he was still very ill. Suddenly, I remembered that he had tried to jump into the back of the jeep, hit his big old blocky head and went down in a heap as we were preparing to lift him up. Ouch! I told the doctors that he was probably in pain from that! Sure enough, they gave him pain killers and he was on the mend. It took more x-rays, medications and blood tests when we got back to Madison but after a few weeks he was back to normal and we were the wiser. I could feel every bit of your worry with Maggie and Skip, we had been through it. We are so lucky that we were able to get him to caring, knowledgeable vets that nursed him back to us so he could continue to fill our days with laughter and love.
Regina R Allen DVM says
When my beloved Sprint (Toy Manchester Terrier) was 6, she surprised me beyond belief by eating an acorn. This is the dog that had literally never done anything wrong in her entire life (she’s my Mary Poppins dog, practically perfect in every way), and we never suspected an obstruction. She was hospitalized and treated for pancreatitis for a week and lost almost 1/3 her body weight, which is a LOT for a 10-lb. dog. I was so scared I was going to lose her. Finally took her to the specialist and they diagnosed the obstruction and removed it that night. She bounced right back, and $6000 later, I had a very expensive acorn desk ornament!
Anita Bemi says
Oh man, what a terrifying excursion you all went through! I’m very happy to read your latest post (although, I’ll say I’m always happy to read your posts. You’re my favorite writer/behaviorist/canine lover/teacher)! I must add your addition of the “doo-oh-dee-num” or “doo-odd-o-num.” question made me nearly giddy and feel an instant connection….and I hope someone that knows the answer to this age old question answers this for us both!
And, please give both Maggie and Skip an extra kiss from me…a complete stranger that wouldn’t dare do herself, but my goodness sure wished she could. Hope you are all getting the much needed sleep you need and deserve!
Margaret Tucker says
I have corks in my kitchen, but so far my counter surfing lab who will eat everything hasn’t eaten one that I am aware of. I will make instant disposal the norm. I am fortunate that my regular vet is in a 24/7 practice, and responds quickly by phone or email when I have a question. She is very good, so she is always booked, but will advise and make recommendations if necessary. I recently saw a post, listing the care practices of vets, commenting that “your pet receives better care than you do” and it’s true.
Dawn says
I’m so glad she’s ok!
Terry Baer-Brooks says
Whew! I got anxious just reading this! And quickly went and kissed my Willie on the snout( not his favorite thing, so I reserve it for times like these!) . We do so love our dogs and our cortisol levels must be sky high when something happens to them but I wouldn’t trade the experience of sharing their lives for anything. So glad and grateful Maggie is safe and recovering, and Skip as well. Sometimes even the recovery is anxiety producing – if only we could explain to them about pain, the whys and hows- and also why they are being “punished “with movement and play restrictions. Ahhh, our lives with dogs- so lucky and grateful to have them!
Louise says
Maybe there is another book coming about life with Maggie.
Vickie says
So glad Maggie pulled through and you can finally relax and let that awful lump in your throat go away! What a story.
While I’ve had many dogs in my life, none compare to my two Aussies and the way they have stolen my heart. Max (my baby) will be turning 9 shortly and his sister, Sybil, will be 10 soon. We call Sybil the iron stomach lady because nothing ever seems to bother her. My boy Max – well he is a completely different story.
Max has struggled with digestive issues his whole life. He will get sick and vomit for a few days and then returns to normal. Not so beginning in May of this year. Woke up one morning to find he had vomited and had diarrhea everywhere during the night. This is a dog who never has an accident in the house. After the cleanup in aisles 4, 5, and 6, he was hungry and I fed both breakfast. Within a few minutes up comes breakfast. My first thought, ok what did he swallow? Called my vet and was advised I’d have to wait 2 weeks for an appointment – if I felt it was urgent to take him to vet emergency (I wasn’t happy – been a patient at this clinic for over 40 years). Called the emergency vet – told me it was a 13 hour wait! What????
I decided to fast him for 24 hours and he appeared to be taking sufficient fluids. He continued to vomit every time he drank for the entire day. Night 2 was a repeat of night 1. Called my vet again and they still wouldn’t see him, but told me to pick up a prescription for antibiotics and anti-nausea. Started him on those with rice and defatted chicken diet. Still no luck. Now I’m finding blood in his loose stools and off we went to emergency. Scared, I sat and waited for over 8 hours while my poor baby continued to vomit yellow bile over and over again. Finally, our turn. They x-rayed and did an ultrasound. No apparent blockage. Took blood samples and sent off to lab. Sent a different antibiotic and told to continue anti-nausea. Also gave a prescription for gastro-intestinal food. They had me call in daily and he still wasn’t getting better. Blood work came back fine – no pancreatitis, no parasites, etc.
Over the course of the next 5 days, he had lost almost 10 pounds and then the coughing started. He sounded like he was going to cough up a lung. Back to the emergency vet. Different doc on call and what an angel. They took additional blood and sent off for a different set of tests, along with a test for valley fever. Also did additional imaging of his internal organs. They suspected he had aspirated his vomit and had developed pneumonia. The radiologist confirmed the pneumonia diagnosis. The internal medicine specialist said he couldn’t lose any more weight and sent me home with an appetite enhancer, more anti-nausea and a different anti-diarrheal, a cough suppressant with hydrocodone, another course of stronger antibiotics for the pneumonia, visbiome to help his gut bacteria, and a different hydrolyzed protein prescription diet and a Prilosec with each meal to cut down on the acid in his tummy to keep from further aggravating his esophagus. He said if Max wasn’t better the next day, they would admit him to give him fluids and see if they could get him to eat. He didn’t give me anything to help calm my developing hysteria – I thought I was going to lose my dog.
When I got home with my new drugstore full of meds and food, I sat on the floor and fed him one kibble at a time until I got a quarter cup of food down his throat. He was groggy from the cough suppressant and slept a couple of hours. I sat down again and fed him another quarter cup of food kibble by kibble (each feeding took about 45 minutes). The vet called the next day and told me he was extremely deficient in vitamin B and folic acid. We went back for a B-12 injection and he started taking folic acid each day, along with his prescribed course of meds.
Turns out Max does not synthesize vitamin B and folic acid from his food. He will need to be supplemented for the rest of his life. After a B-12 injection each week for 6 weeks, he has gained back about 5 pounds and seems healthy. He is now on a maintenance dose of B-12 monthly, folic acid daily, and Prilosec with each meal. Imagine our elation at his first “firm” bowel movement about 10 days after all of this occurred. We celebrated! Follow-up blood work shows his levels are now where they should be.
I am disappointed my regular vet never did the necessary work to determine why he had struggled off and on for so many years with what they said was “probably” irritable bowel, there were no workups done to get to the bottom of the continual intestinal issues. I am so grateful for this vet and his care of my precious boy.
Sorry for the lengthy post, but your Maggie’s adventures stirred up my already heightened emotions. Amazing how ingrained these babies are in our hearts and our lives. My best to you and your pups as her recovery continues and she gets stronger every day.
God bless you all.
Marilynn says
So very glad to hear that Maggie is okay!! I can only imagine how horrible this was for you. I’m also relieved you were able to get her in to be seen. Vets and emergency clinics around here are so very hard to get into, and sometimes even closed due to vet shortages. This scares the heck out of me. Hoping for a calm, peaceful rest of the summer for all of you.
Trisha says
Anita, your kind words about my writing/work are so welcome. Right now I’m still exhausted and sick (Covid? Bronchitis? Argh.), so your praise is welcome indeed. My poor mystery novel has been on hold for forever, but I hope to get back to it soon!
Trisha says
Vickie Julka: Holy crap, what a terrifying story! Thank heaven it had a happy ending!
Suzanne Elshult says
What an unbelievable ordeal. So glad about the happy ending.
Trisha says
No pet insurance, we’re calling this the $20,000 week (AC went out, need a new one). That’s a HUGE amount of money to us, but it won’t break us and I feel so lucky about that.
Ricki says
Beautifully written! So expressive I cried through most of it. How we love our doggies and what we go through for (and with) them. Maybe you should start drinking wine 🙂
Cindy Connally says
So glad you were able to get Maggie seen quickly and get her the lifesaving help she needed…I have friends who weren’t so lucky due to understaffed and over-worked vet clinics and ER’s!
Carol Nichols says
Ahhh…..so happy Maggie is finally recovering. I spent 40 years as a vet tech, I know how stressful these things can be….especially when you’re pretty damn sure there’s something in there but it’s not showing up on rads. And I can relate to sleeping on the floor: when I had my Border Collie mix spayed, I put some pillows and a sleeping bag on the living room floor, so Roadie would not be tempted to make the big jump into the bed with my husband. (She was a small dog, only 30-ish pounds, so that was a big jump for her to get in bed.) I’ll give you three guesses (and the first two don’t count) who woke up alone on the living room floor the next morning. Damn dogs.
Melanie W. says
So happy to hear that Maggie is ok now.
I truly feel for what you went through. I’ve gone through this exact same scenario 4 times in my life. 3 with my previous Springer. EX: cooking twine from a chicken carcass left in the woods by an opportunity trash panda; plastic cap and pieces from a Prozac RX belonging to my former BC Robbie, and finally a shaft of bone from a T-Bone steak when she bumped the plate I was carrying to to the trash. These all happened over the course of her 13 year life span, and the last one happened 2 weeks after an emergency splenectomy due to a tumor.
I thought I was done after her, but no. My current BC Winston (Mr. counter-surfer extraordinare) swallowed a corn cob whole and was extremely pleased with himself. 20 minutes later he was off to the vet (still pleased) and the next morning under the knife to remove said corn cob (Not very pleased with the cone of shame afterward).
This is why I’ve never needed kids.
🙄😁
Karie says
So happy Maggie has recovered!
My week sucked too. My brother died on Wednesday.
Karen says
Oooof- here’s rooting for a restful recovery for all! My best healing thoughts for all of you.
As for the story, lead with the outcome, vary suspense between high and crazy, mortar with oodles of open hearted love- your mystery might be more than my heart can bear…..
I have been composting my corks but it takes several rounds before they stop looking like corks so- no more!
Marguerite Harris says
Oh MY, what a story!! I learn so much from reading your blog. I’m so glad things have turned out ok…that was a close call. My Polly eats everything she can find, and I’m always pouncing on her in and outside. I’ve never thought about corks! Ha, I’ve noticed that if she is about to skarf (sp?) something down and I express alarm, she “works” much faster… (little devil!) so I usually have treats in my pocket and will try to say nothing and throw some treats for her which USUALLY causes her to rush off and leave the offending item. But now often she’ll do her best to run and grab the treats and make it back at lightning speed (she is just over one year old and an aussie…) to try to grab the bad thing again! Ha Ha, funny joke!! And man is she sneaky! If you see her lying there like a sphinx with her chin resting firmly on the floor, you just know that she has some wonderful prize (usually a rock…scary) that she doesn’t want me to see. With this oh so innocent look on her face! “What? Nothing to look at here!” I’ve had lots of dogs, but never one like this… so totally hilarious and brilliant…she is waaaay too smart for me!
Rest well, Trish, and get better soon.
Danielle says
Ok, hear me out: boxed wine 😉
Seriously, though. I know all of us who share our lives with these incredible creatures we call dogs have a story or two like this. We had a mycotoxin scare earlier this year which resulted in my (then) 7 month old Shepherd having seizures in my lap all the way to the emergency vet. She’s fine now, and the compost pile has new 3 layers of containment built around it to prevent further incidents.
My best story of the indiscriminate eating type, however, is from my days as a vet assistant. We had just finished an annual exam on a young lab mix and turned to the family’s cat. Behind me I hear their toddler say words that will forever be burned in my memory, “Goodbye sock.” The youngster had pulled off their own sock and was playing keep away with the dog, who promptly grabbed and swallowed the sock whole. IN THE EXAM ROOM.
Thank goodness for happy endings and relatively easy retrievals of items consumed.
Carrie says
I am so very happy that this ending was good. 🙏🏻 Hoping from here on Maggie continues to heal quickly and thrive. Thanks for sharing this story. Us pet lovers sympathize as we seem to all have gone through some sort of tragedies in our lives. ❤️
Shivani says
Wow, such a scary experience. So glad you’ve come out the other side and she’s recovering. I hope everyone is catching up on sleep!
I’m always grateful our little guy is too short to counter surf. But there’s always the fear of him finding something on the ground. We work on training ‘leave it’, but still, things can happen in an instant. And it’s stressful these days to know you may not be able to get in to see a vet in an emergency.
If people have recommendations for pet insurance I’d be happy to hear them.
Betsy says
I am so glad and grateful to hear Maggie will be well again!
Could we please talk about making our own food for our dogs? Two weeks ago, we had to have our BC/lab mix , Merci,
euthanized due to cancer. She wasn’t the only dog we have lost to cancer. I would like to begin making my own dog food, hoping to lessen the chances of future problems. The information I am reading online, in articles and books is confusing. Some say making your own dog food is as simple as selecting a protein, a carbohydrate and some fruits/vegetables with the addition of a vitamin/mineral supplement and a healthy oil top dressed. Other sources make the process seem far more complicated and have one specific recipe for each specific protein- so specific that to substitute venison for beef in a recipe is forbidden. I suspect many of us would prefer to make our own food but get so confused by all the contradictory information that we are afraid to try. I would appreciate some guidance very much.
Jackie says
Thank you so much for sharing this incredibly helpful story, you had me on the edge of my seat. I hope your well being recovers quickly along with Maggie.
Our Springer has a ‘sensitive stomach’, despite best efforts still a mystery, seems to be ‘growing out’ of it with the help of expensive dog food 🙂
With vomiting obstruction has always been my worst fear and watch him like a hawk to see which way it’s going to go.
You are the best writer ever, the husband (ICU Doc) was grinning over his morning coffee. You had his full attention. No one can describe a panic moment like you can (except maybe Brene Brown!) the “focussed committed intensity” was so familiar and so funny, I know you can move mountains! So glad you saved your dog.
Sylvia Snell says
Following your & Maggie’s storey. I am amazed and most relieved after following your tale. Thank heaven for ER vets who think outside the box when it cones to diagnosing! So glad your precious girl is recovering and you also getting needed rest! Your supporting staff, Jim and Skip (& any others who deserve praise) sound like the best supporting staff! Prayers sent for full rrecovery for Maggie & Skip!
Barb Stanek says
Thanks for sharing. So glad.
Trisha says
Oh Karie, I am so, so sorry. Heartbreaking.
Karen Hollis says
Thank you for sharing this story. I’m so glad Maggie is on the road to recovery.
Linda Gallacher says
Such a terrifying experience! Glad that Maggie is on the mend. A lesson learned about the corks. I keep corks for my Amazon parrot to play with and she often throws them on the floor. No more! We will find something equally entertaining but far less dangerous for the fur kids!
MARY R GINGERICH says
I’ll echo all the comments about how happy I am for all of you that Maggie is ok now. And then I will add a prayer that your AC is back up soon. As the resident of a desert state, I shudder at the thought of losing AC in the summer – which we have had happen.
Cristina says
I am so glad that Maggie is OK, especially with the post-surgery scare ! Our dog is also extremely stoic in terms of pain, and I hate that I can never tell how bad his pain is until he is in too much pain to bear! (he has a form of anxiety which manifests into actually biting bits off his body when he is stressed, and then… it HURTS !).
Carla Blumer says
OMG! I feel for you and Maggie!!!! I had the same exact thing happen with my rescue Cockapoo, Critter, in the late 70’s. I came home from work to a very sick dog that was violently vomiting and starting to bloat. I took him into my vet. He had me leave him with him over night. He called me the next morning to let me know that Critter had gotten substantially worse during the night and he could tell he had an intestinal blockage that wasn’t moving, so he did emergency surgery. The blockage turned out to be a wine cork. The bottle had been sitting next to the trash and I never noticed the cork had disappeared from the bottle. My little cork wino came home a day later. I never kept bottles out of the trash after that expensive scare!
Kat says
Very glad Maggie is on the road to recovery. Your way of writing the story had me on the edge of my seat, heart in mouth, even knowing the story would have a happy ending.
One of the many cat toys in my house is an old cork–it’s on cats four and five now. The dogs have never shown any interest in it but Maggie’s adventures have me eyeing it and their other toys suspiciously. Cat toys are basically all cork sized meaning the perfect size for a Pyr to swallow easily and create problems.
Maggie on the couch had me laughing out loud. It reminded me so much of my late lamented Finna when she had knee surgery. Her first night home we closed her in her crate for the night and in the morning discovered that she didn’t want to spend the night in her crate so she’d worked at the door until she popped the latch then strolled into the other room so she could hop on the couch to sleep. We ended up taking it in turn to sleep downstairs on the futon matress with her while she healed.
Susan Hudachek says
WOW! You have been thorugh so much with Maggie, so glad she is ok and she ‘popped the cork’ out with surgery. The crazy things our pets put us through. Hoping you have some time to regroup and soon enjoy the dogs running around and playing soon! Thanks for sharing your story with us all. (((hugs)))
Trisha says
Ha! Love the laugh out loud. Only Finna!
Peggy Schoen says
Wishing Maggie a complete & speedy recovery!
So glad she is on the mend & home with you.
Geri says
Whew . . . ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Lorie says
Thank you for sharing the update! So glad Maggie is on the mend.
I wanted to point one thing out for everyone dismayed by the stated wait times at emergency clinics — they triage! I had to take my dude in twice last year; once after a scuffle with his sister that required an ear staple. They told me 4 hours then and it was about 2.
Last fall he collapsed at home after refusing cheese, which is a five alarm fire for wellness concerns. And his gums were pale bordering on gray. I had a very similar reaction to Trisha – get your shoes on, get to the vet NOW NOW NOW. My husband carried Bean to the car and I called ahead; they told me the wait was 6+ hours and I thought oh no, he does not have 6 hours. But we went.
A bunch of people ran to hold the door for us, like something out of a movie, and when we went to the counter they asked us to lift his lip so they could see his gums. The minute we did they paged for a tech STAT and people came running out to get him immediately.
Unfortunately, it was his first symptom of hemangiosarcoma and we lost him three weeks later. Fortunately, that trip gave us those three weeks and we were able to say goodbye. I will be grateful forever for those days.
Moral of the story: please don’t let the wait times deter you if it’s a truly life threatening emergency or your pet is in pain. They triage just like at people ERs.
Sue Hill says
So very happy to hear Maggie is doing better.
Re SKIP – Not sure of the best way to share this, but I have some video (and pics) of Nemo, our lab/bluetick coonhound mix using a nebulizer (w/acetylcysteine) and an electric steam vaporizer for his chronic rhinitis (lymphoplasmacytic, neutrophilic rhinitis). We figured out an easy way to have him enjoy his once-a-day treatment time and it helped manage his condition.
Teresa Godfrey says
Your writing is so descriptive-and really gets the emotional piece of being a dog lover. I have been exactly where you were-dealing with a bloated dog (with torsion) knowing he could die at any moment. Praying that the surgeon would arrive in time to save my baby. My story does have a happy ending too. He lived another 7 years—which was quite an achievement for a BMD.
I love your postings & blogs-they are perfect for all of the dog-loving folks out there who are tired of the fad make-believe breeds and the folks with unrealistic expectations they have for their Veterinarians. They are all true hero’s.
Sandy says
Worked many years in radiology. Most docs called it the duo-dee-num while some called it doo-ah-de-num. Takeaway: both work. So glad you are all recovering 😃💗
Ilene Segal says
Definitely ” doo-odd-uh-num” . I have seen many things inside a dog that were not supposed to be there – a plastic football, an army soldier who was saluting ( could see that on the radiograph ), a good sized metal bearing, a cat who swallowed a dime ( I have no idea why ), popsicle stick ( that dog perforated his intestines and died ), and various combinations of bones/aluminum foil, corn cobs – they also make a great radiograph. Ear buds are a big hit with many dogs. I made my own dog vomit after he ate my sandwich with the Ziploc bag and out came the sandwich, the bag and a surprise peach pit ( this was in the middle of December, so who knows how long that had been in there). Thank you for being an astute and concientious pet owner that realizes something is really wrong with your dog. One of my clients put their dog outside after he woke them up vomiting and they found him dead in the morning due to the gastric volvulus and torsion that was causing the vomiting. If there is any suspicion your pet ate something not intended for their consumption, please go straight to the ER. Better safe than sorry.
Trisha says
Ilene: Gotta say the saluting soldier has got to win some strange prize…
Liza Piatt says
Yr posts are always phenominal! Since I knew much of the story, I wasn’t on as much of atrollercoaster as most of yr blog readers were.
And just as glad as all of them that she is better now.
muttzrule says
What a crazy amount of stress all at once. If I’d had to deal with a fraction of all that, I’d probably be the one needing gabapentin and trazodone! So thankful Maggie and everyone is ok (they are ok, right? How is Skip doing with his sinuses?)
Love the pic of Maggie and Skip snuggling. And the one of her on the couch. Gotta love the resourcefulness of dogs. I thought of Duncan chewing his way out of the cone of shame. We switched to Tshirts after that.
R.I.P AC, that just makes everything else your family is going through worse. Every time I gripe to myself about the cost of running mine when it’s around 100 every day, I thank God that it IS running. Hope yours is fixed soon.
I lol’ed at “rocket vomit” and “asthmatic sloth”. This post has to be one of your best. The combination of suspense and relief, laughter and love, and of course dogs, reminded me of some of Dean Koontz’s novels. If this is an indication of what we can expect from that mystery novel, please hurry up and finish it!
After y’all get some much needed rest, of course. 😉
Shana B says
I am so very glad that Maggie is ok – whew that was some close call and I am so happy the vet thought to take a contrast image! We will be sure to keep corks away from our pup even though he, like Maggie, never expressed any interest in them.
Joan Whitacre says
Thank you for sharing this beautifully narrated journey through fear, anxiety, exhaustion, hope and gratefulness all handled with grace.
Trisha says
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Jody Hergert-Andresen says
Thank goodness that all is well. Wishing Maggie, you, Jim and Skip a full and complete recovery.
Monika @ Tails Around the Ranch says
Having a dog who had bloat and survived (two weeks after swallowing a silicone lid that was recovered), I know all too well about the anxiety you experienced. So glad that Maggie made it through. All best healing wishes through the recovery period and an extra ear rub to Maggie, Queen of the sofa pillows.
Trisha says
Queen of the Sofa Pillows it is! Thanks Monika!
Jennifer says
I really hope it is not a zero-turn mower. They are absolutely not made to be used on slopes of any kind. A relation recently perished on one in exactly those circumstances.
Susan says
Whew! What an ordeal! I am so glad it turned out ok. I so enjoy reading your posts, and all the comments. Such a wealth of information here!
Kelly says
Poor baby- I’m sure she thought that cork was really nifty when she ate it!! So glad she is safe and sound now.
Also, you can pronounce “duodenum” as either “doo-AH-dinum” or “doo-uh-DEE-num” and you’d be correct. Most folks seem to prefer the former pronunciation in my human medicine experience though.
Trisha says
Oh Jennifer, I am so, so very sorry. Wasn’t that kind of mower, and he’s now retired from doing it, whew.
Chery says
There’s nothing worse than knowing your animal is sick, but not knowing why. Many years ago of our Cattle Dogs got into a container of pelleted beet pulp for one of our senior horses. Oh my word. We knew what she’d eaten and what it would do, but our small animal vet had never encountered a beet pulp impaction. (Knowing what she’d eaten DID help us cut to the chase and create a hypothetical “best scenario” treatment plan though.) In the long run, it was a few days of Roto-Rootering, returning home, going back to the vet for more Rot0-Rootering and so on. In the end, I never trusted anyone to put the lid on the beet pulp container and always insisted on doing it myself.
Tommy Neblett says
I’m only going to buy wine with twist off caps from now on!
Timaran says
Wow! My first thought when I saw the title of your post was that Maggie had died and I immediately got a lump in my throat, the same as when Willie died. Strange, isn’t it, how you can care about creatures you’ve never met? Reminds me of a meme I saw once that said, “I like maybe three people in the world and about 500 dogs on the internet that I’ve never met.” Anyway, I’m very glad that Maggie is okay. And thanks for the heads up about wine corks. My family drinks wine with dinner so I end up with a lot of corks to throw away. I’ll be extra vigilant from now on.
Diana says
Oh, my goodness, Trisha! You’ve been through the wars. And Maggie, too. I’m just a stranger from Maryland but my whole heart calls out to the four of you and sends you love.
I could really relate to this post. My beloved Maddie had surgery a few months ago and I, like you, made a sick room and spent my nights and much of the day laying on a mattress on the dining-room floor with her as she recovered. And, yeah, exactly what does “resting comfortably” mean? If she’s in a crate at the vet’s, I can guarantee she’s not resting comfortably. And I also go into that laser-focused hyperdrive, “no time for tears just do what needs to be done” mode when there’s an emergency. It’s a great reaction to have—it means you were on point when Maggie needed you most!
I’m so glad she’s recovering. Get some rest!
Robin says
Wow, what a story. We all understand that absolute panic about our fur kids. I am so glad Maggie is ok and recovering well. I will send some prayers for all of you. Thankfully, Jim is good too!
Diane says
Didn’t expect to see a new post when I checked out the blog.
Then was sorry I did see a new post, and learned that you all went through that!
I’m very happy it all turned out well and best wishes for continued physical and emotional recovery for Maggie, Skip, you and Jim.
Uta says
What a story. So good to read that it ended well. Thank you for sharing this journey. And thank God for vets who go the extra mile, they seem increasingly hard to come by these days. All the best for Maggie’s recovery – and for yours from all the stress and the sleepless nights.
Thank you also to all the people posting educating comments; they are such a great read, too!
Mary Ellen says
I still have a knot in my stomach after reading what happened to Maggie. I am so glad she is
ok. As a veterinary technician I have seen obstructions many times but your story puts it into the perspective of a worried, loving owner.
Keep getting stronger Maggie!
Alice R. says
Oh, my, I hadn’t heard the second half of this saga. They take years off our life while they also enrich it so. And no air conditioning, and your sister!?! I’m so sorry you had the week from hell, and so glad Maggie is okay. So scary!
Kelley M says
So glad Maggie is home and doing well. Our now 9 year old GSD first bloated when he was 2 years old. I’ve lost count of the number of ER visits since then despite gastropexy after the first bloat. Those car rides involve a lot of prayer and white knuckle driving. But last year, he decided bloat by itself was now boring. So he ate a 12” long Kong Wubba. No idea how he didn’t choke on it or I didn’t see him do it. Off to ER and within 12 hours he was in surgery, after aspirating during intubation. I stayed with him during most of his post op recovery. Thankfully, once he decided to start eating, he improved rapidly and came home where I now watch him like a hawk. No toys allowed except under supervision. I aged 10 years in those 48 hours. Scary times!