Pet of the month – Bugs!
With the assistance of my son Robert, we arrived in Texas on Bugs’ one year birthday (August 8) to take him home to California – promising Ali, that he would have the best possible home and care possible. (Ali, here: I am extremely picky where my kids go and knew this was his new mom) . Never did I ever imagine this nightmare would decend upon us. I will give an update on everything from his breeding up to this point tomorrow.)
Little did we ALL know that we would truly be put to the test; and sooner rather than later.
Two days later, Bugs had his full checkup and blood work for next Wednesday’s August 17, neutering. My vet noticed a slight stiffness of his left elbow and recommended X-Rays.
(Ali: at this point, 5 DIFFERENT VETS that were involved from the breeding and caring of Bugs, had totally missed any of these signs and symptoms!! I am forever grateful to Mary and HER vet for being so diligent, I would NEVER want to HIDE *ANY* of this from other OES Breeders or owners!!! and this was all going on while my Ricky was being operated on for eating a hole in a whelping box pad!)
Thus began our life-changing experience with our 12 month Old English Sheepdog we named Bugs. WHO DOES happens to be “cute as a Bug’s ear.”
The Radiologist’s full report came on Monday, August 22 indicating “concern” about gas bubbles where they didn’t belong and strongly recommended full body X-Rays when Bugs came in for his re-check. My vet and I argued about the real need for these as well as the added seemingly unnecessary expense. “Why are we looking for something to be wrong with this puppy?” Bugs was taken in back. Full X-rays were done. My ashen vet returned to show me the X-Rays indicating that I/we needed to be seen by a Cardiologist at U.C. Davis in San Diego immediately. I commented that the X-Rays looked as if “someone left their spaghetti dinner in there.” Met with Dr. Orvalho at U.C. Davis the following afternoon for an Echocardiogram. From there I was referred to Dr. Fred Pike at Animal Specialty Hospital in the front part of the building for confirmation determination of a plan of action.
I had to wait for a couple of hours until Dr. Pike was out of a meeting, but it wasn’t a problem as traffic was heavy and waiting there was better than sitting on the freeway. Besides, we were returning home later anyway. (Of course, Bugs ended up remaining at ASH overnight for early morning surgery the next day. I returned home late, without a dog and exhausted.)
After consulting with Dr. Orvalho, Dr. Pike came in to examine Bugs with all of his previous X-Rays, echocardiogram, and Ultrasound ready to view. As suspected by that amazing radiologist looking at Bugs’ elbow; it was definitive: a congenital defect known as PPDD, Canine Peritoneal-pericardial Diaphragmatic Hernia. The shock was that Bugs appeared to be completely asymptomatic. The specialists have not been able to find any other case where the dog did not arrive critical. This, in and of itself, was believed to be “on our side.” A complete correction and recovery was expected with an expected discharge to home within two days. That was not to be the case.
Bugs was taken to ICU immediately following surgery, where he remained for a total of eleven days. In addition to the PPDH repair (moving his displaced organs (stomach, gall bladder, liver lobes, and intestines from the pericardial sac to the abdominal cavity where they belonged), a preventative Gastropexy to prevent bloat in the future was also performed. These organs apparently were NOT happy back where they belonged and have been slow to start up again.
Bugs began to regurgitate intermittently, and developed aspirated pneumonia- first in one lung, then both. His temp climbed to 106 and showed no response to three major antibiotics. He was on oxygen, multiple other drugs and all nourishment was by IV.
One week following diagnosis we decided we would “let him go.” But overnight, a couple of specialists who had been consulting on the case suggested two things; a antibiotic only used in the most critical of cases (Meronem) and another recommended a custom multi-part nasal tube to both treat his now severely inflamed esophagus AND to aspirate the stomach acids so that he would not further irritate the esophagus so it could heal. Regular nebulizer treatments to moisten & soothe the airways, and regular aspiration of stomach acids were routine.
This didn’t happen immediately, but Bugs began to show improvement – slowly. Unfortunately Bugs still required round the clock ICU care. But, the good news was that ASH allowed me to not only visit Bugs, but to remain with him for the entire 12 hours daily visiting period in ICU, where I was permitted to clean up after him, and provide any and all treatments not involving needles. ( MORE VETS NEED TO REALIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF THE BOND OF ANIMAL-TO- OWNER AND HOW BEING TOGETHER HELPS BOTH IN THESE SITUATIONS)!
It was clear to everyone on “Team Bugs” that my presence seemed to soothe him allowing him to rest and heal. I/we were in a small cubicle the size of a 500 crate for most of the time other than when they moved him/us to an elevated huge crib in order to add more equipment. This is where I stayed for seven days. In retrospect, I only wish I had gone to stay with him immediately. Maybe he never would have stressed and regurgitated…..
I learned a lot more than I ever thought I would need to know about how a critical care facility such as ASH treats ill animals. I am convinced “there is a reason” for this experience – I just don’t know what it is yet.
As you might imagine, each and every afternoon when the accounting department provided me with an invoice for the “charges to date”, I had to ask myself, “When is it too much?’ But, once we started down this path it was difficult to “cut our losses” just when we were making progress. I needed to believe that there was some hope of getting Bugs off of IV fluids, meds, oxygen, etc. so that we could leave and return home.
The evening of the eleventh day in ICU we were discharged and allowed to leave with a Nasogastric tube still in place in addition to bags and bags of medication, syringes, drains, etc. You see, I too had become a part of “Team Bugs” while living in ICU, and the staff felt that I was competent provide his ongoing care-if they spent the time to educate me on each and every step of the process
