He caught a bee or wasp or some kind of stinging insect, and got stung in his throat!
I took him and Myndi out late yesterday afternoon, and I sat on the back steps as I usually do, while they go nosing around the yard and do their business. I was still somewhat rattled (no pun intended) after the earthquake earlier, so wasn't really paying much attention to what they were doing. Sparky loves to go grazing and eat grass, and I'm always hollering at him to stop, since sometimes he gets some caught in his throat and then gags and hacks to get it up. He's always snapping at bugs too, trying to see if he can catch one. Well, he disappeared around the corner of the house so I couldn't see what he was up to, and the next thing I know, he comes tearing around the corner like at bat out of you know where, coughing and gagging and hacking. I knew he got stung from the way he was behaving - he was in a panic, and having trouble getting his breath. I got them in the house, and he settled down, but every few minutes would start shaking all over and gasping again. I called the vet, but she had already left for the day, so I decided just to watch him like a hawk, and if he got worse, then I'd have to take him to the emergency center. He wouldn't eat anything but I wasn't too concerned about that. He was lethargic and dejected looking, but he was breathing okay. Several times during the night he woke me up with the gagging and gasping - reminded me of someone having an asthma attack when they can't get their breath. This morning when we got up, instead of him running to the back door to go out like he usually does, he headed straight for my son and got under his desk and pawed at Steve for him to pick him up. He does this if he's sick or just not feeling good, or if he's scared about something. I couldn't get him to eat any breakfast, but he did eat a handful of Cheerios (our little morning treat), but hacked the whole time.
So I called the vet right at 8 as soon as I knew she would be in, and she had me bring him right in. Relayed to her what happened and how he was acting, and she tried to pry his jaws open to check his throat, but she had as much success with that as we did last night - be fought like a tiger! So going on what I told her, she too is assuming that he got stung and his throat is swollen and irritated, since she did hear him hacking a little bit too. She gave him a steroid shot, and sent us home with steroid pills and an antibiotic, and hopefully that will do the trick. So $68 dollars later, and some more gray hairs, I think I'm calming down - again!!!!
If you could send some PT prayers out for Sparky, so that he gets feeling better soon, we sure would appreciate it! Thanks a bunch.
Please Lord - let today be a better day than yesterday! No more surprises please.
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