Ana's Scare

We had a terrible health-scare last night- luckily everything is getting better this morning (see, I'm nice- I didn't make you read all of this wondering what the outcome was going to be).

I was working late, and Kenney came home to check on the pups. He called me in a panic saying that Ana's jaw was swollen and her eyes were bloodshot. Not knowing how serious it was, or not, I called our vet to see if they would see her immediately. They closed at 6pm. So, after a quick phone call to Trina, we made our way to Pets First where Kenney met me with Ana in tow. I couldn't fathom the amount of swelling our poor baby girl had- the only thing I could liken it to is that she looked like Snoopy with a tiny little nose and her muzzle completely bulging out. She had an enormous amount of liquid settled her throat, chest and legs. If you ran your hands over her body you could feel the liquid settling over her back and down her haunches. It was a terrible site to see her so bloated. She obviously didn't feel well either. Her ears were purple on the inside. We had to wait about an hour and 45 minutes before she could be seen. When the tech came and took her back to the vet, the vet came out and said that she was concerned by the combination of the bloating and the vomiting, so they took some x-rays and did a blood test. By this time, I had called Trina again, and she and another of our friends were on their way to be with us for both moral support and a second opinion.

Shortly after they arrived, the vet came back in. We looked over the x-rays and bloodwork (Trina and I had no luck in explaining to the vet that the red blood cell count in greyhounds could be normal at 62 as the acceptable range is generally 55 to 65 according to the paperwork we were armed with). She sent us to the emergency vet out in Manakin-Sabot because she thought Ana needed fluids, additional tests (possibly for tick-born illnesses), and observation which they could not offer at their facility. When we got there, they took Ana in the back for about an hour, and then the emergency vet saw us. She pretty much reiterated her confusion at the combination of symptoms that Ana was exhibiting, but at least she was more well-versed in greyhounds than the first vet was, because she said that the first vet thought she needed fluids due to a high red blood cell count, but that greyhounds tend to run high. There was a sigh of relief from my direction- finally, someone who has signs of being knowledgable about greyhounds. She said that we could either take her home and give her benadryl and pepto (her guess was that it was coincidental that she was vomiting and bloated, and she figured that the bloating more than likely was an allergic reaction to something- perhaps an insect she may have ingested). She said we could leave her there overnight but that she wouldn't do anything that we couldn't do at home and we live close enough that we could get her back fairly quickly in need.

So- RELIEF! Bloodwork was good, X-rays were good...Ana is still bloated this morning in the face, neck, chest and front legs, but her ears can stand up straight again (they were so bloated last night, she could only cock them half way like Blue does). Her skin is not as hot to the touch, but she is still exhausted. I called out of work today so I could stay home and watch her. We are just so happy that she appears to be getting better and that there is nothing major that showed up in the tests that should cause us worry.

This is Ana this morning. The swelling has greatly gone down, but you can still see the liquid being held under her neck. She is starting to look like her old self again.