So I haven't written for 11 days. Why? Nothing was changing, we were only semi locked down and we nearly lost Maggie to an infection that caused her kidneys to fail. I was so stressed and had such bad sleep that I didn't have the time, energy or inclination to update this.
But I'm back.
There have been some easing of restrictions. We can now have 20 people in our homes, 50 people at a funeral, restaurants can have 20 patrons at a time and beauticians are opening from May 31st. We can also go on holiday and stay overnight.
So what happened to Maggie. She was a little unwell and off her food for a couple of weeks. The vet couldn't find anything wrong with her. No UTI, no infection, so suspected a gastro. She started picking up a little but on the Saturday virtually stopped eating. By Sunday we were really concerned so took her to Bundoora vet hospital and they admitted her. The next morning they advised that I take her to Zoe her internal medicine specialist. They have an overnight nurse there so she was going to admitted overnight. We get a call from Zoe at 6pm to say she had gone severely downhill and needed to go to the ER across the road. She suspected sepsis due to very high kidney levels and said the prognosis was poor. 70% mortality rate in a healthy dog. So we raced over to Mount Waverley (I postponed my 7pm job at the butcher) and transferred her to the AEC vet.
She managed to pull through the night and we visited her at 2pm on the Tue afternoon. She could barely stand, was carried into and out of the visiting room, was attached to the drip the entire time and slept the entire time. She had refused all food at this point in time. We left and at 3pm she ate her first couple of pieces of chicken! Hooray.
The next day, Wed, she walked into the room, mostly slept on the blanket on the floor, had moments of brightness and was very happy to see us.
On Thursday she wagged her tail when she saw Jesse and I. She was awake for most of the time and regained her position on the couch. The vet said she'll go home the next day if her blood glucose level is maintained on food only.
An interesting point, Maggie literally started picking up from when she first saw her in on Tuesday. This is now the 2nd time she has done this. 2 years ago when she was in Addisonian crisis, she wasn't recovering from an anaesthetic. Andy our vet was so concerned about her. We came into the recovery room and started talking to her. She instantly roused herself when she heard our voices. Andy was amazed.
We picked her up on Friday. She literally slept all day Friday and Saturday and most of Sunday. Started to join the family again and act more like herself from Monday. She's still quiet and fussy with her food (only eating chicken thigh), but she's doing well and Zoe is stoked with her progress.
So that was the last 11 days.
It started at Bundoora Vet Hospital
Vet consults over the phone or in the car park, pay over the phone, lots of waiting in the car or outside.
So sick on Monday, waiting for Zoe
Still so sick on Tuesday
Wednesday starting to improve
But still exhausted
Thursday able to go out for toileting
I'm a whippet, I don't do sleeping on the floor
Time to go home
Friday: time to go home. Thanks AEC Mount Waverley for saving her life
This was her bandage, to me this shows how caring and sweet the staff are at AEC.
Back home in front of the heater. She's struggling to stay warm as she's lost so much weight and muscle. So exhausted the poor darling. We kept my room dark, warm and quiet so she could sleep and heal.
Sunday: starting to do her normal stuff. Lying in the window sunshine is one of her favourite things.
I made cushion steps so that she can get up onto my bed.
Monday: back to asking for food, joining in with the family and sleeping less.
Today: maintaining warmth, out on a little bit of weight. Her bones feel so sharp, especially her spine.