alex the wonder dog continues to stupify me. he managed to develope a case of aspiration pneumonia over the weekend, he spent 2 nights in the ver er at ohio state university. he's had some problems with nausea over the last 10-12 days, my regular vet checked him out and gave him an injection of pepcid and he did well for 3 days. on saturday, the nausea returned and some how he managed to inhale some of the vomit into his lungs. late saturday pm, i noticed he'd started to cough, a coughing dog is never a good thing. i gave him a small dose of robitussin on sunday am, and when the cough continued, i took him to the er in the early afternoon, just for the record, an er is an er, human or animal, so bring a book. we spent a lovely sunny sunday inside where after a few hours and an xray, he was diagnosed with pneumonia. he had to stay, they hooked him to an iv, he was slightly dehydrated from his vomiting, so they gave him fluids and an antibiotic. on monday they took a culture from his trachea(tube from the mouth to the lungs) and it's growing e. coli, which is normally in the digestive tract. it's a real problem anyplace else in the body. i got to visit him monday night after work. osu has a visiting area for humans and their animals with 2 comfy chairs. on monday night, he looked horrid, green mucus dripping from his snout and an iv and they had to take blood from his jugular at one point (the blood vessels in his throat). i took him outside for a potty break, and his nose was so stuffy that he couldn't smell the next door cow barn (osu is an agriculture land grant school and does a lot of animal research) as i could smell it. we came back in to the visit room, he got in my lap and licked my cheek for a few minutes, then he fell asleep lying on my chest and lap. he slept for nearly 2 hours, i bet he hadn't slept too well in the crates in the icu, and well, i'm the humom. the very nice vet student, jessie (and i want to adopt that boy:) ) is very smart, kind and sweet. he came in and found me reading and alex sleeping when it was time for the visit to end. we spoke about alexs' medical condition and that he would call me in the am with an update. it was hard for me to leave alex again, he whimpered as i left.
on tuesday am, jessie called and said alex was ready to leave, alex had carefully removed his iv line himself, but all the antibiotic had run in first. :p . i got to pick him up, we got home and, after checking out the cats, and cuddling with me, he fell asleep for 10 hours.
he still is sneezing, doesnot like having his nose wiped AT ALL and is slowly getting better. i am thrilled to have him home.
