Last week I was doing my regular volunteer shift at the animal hospital when my mom called to tell me Daisy had collapsed after stumbling around a bit. She had peed and pooped while she was lying on the floor, so we all immediately thought she had a seizure (we're still not sure if she did, since no one actually saw it happen). As upset as I was that I wasn't home, I was sooo thankful that my family was. I don't even want to think about her lying on the floor alone :'(
I rushed home and when I walked in the house, she wagged her tail but couldn't even lift her head. Her breathing was laboured and although she had a good menace response (for non-vet students: http://vmerc.uga.edu/CranialNerves/mrr.html), she wasn't blinking like normal. I wrapped her in a blanket and we rushed her to the vet. Side note - I used to volunteer for this vet and he is one of my favourite people - he also wrote one of my references for vet school :)
On the way there, I was of course thinking of the worst case scenarios. If I had an epileptic dog I wasn't sure if it was worth having her on meds for the rest of her life when she was already getting up there in age. What would her quality of life be like? Would she be happy? Would I be able to go to class and leave her home alone without something happening? It was the strangest mix of emotions because as I was sitting in the car crying, I was also trying to think logically. The clash of pet owner and vet student was pretty weird and confusing.
The vet was immediately concerned about her breathing so he did chest rads and then called me in to look at them. I was still upset but being a part of the diagnostic process was awesome. He thought her heart looked a little big - I thought so as well, despite my limited radiology experience - but her lungs looked fine. He sent the rads off for a specialist's report and told us to go home and leave Daisy to get fluids and a full blood panel. A few hours later he called me saying fluids were definitely helping, the radiologist report didn't reveal much that was concerning, but her blood results showed messed up electrolytes and elevated kidney values. When we brought her home 5 hours later she was much perkier but I was still thinking the worst - kidney failure. The vet said that was unlikely since she would have been losing weight rapidly - and her weight hadn't changed at all since her last exam. She should have also had a very decreased appetite, and with her being a beagle we definitely didn't have a problem with that. I was instructed to bring her back in the morning with a pee sample.
After a restless night (for me - I slept on the couch beside her while she snored away all night), I collected a sample and immediately thought there was blood in it. The vet confirmed that and also said it was loaded with rods (bacteria) - finally we had somewhat of a diagnosis = kidney infection. They sent the urine for culture and we're still waiting for the final results, but in the meantime Daisy has been on antibiotics and was pretty much back to her normal self within 24 hours.
Talk about a whirlwind of emotions! I am so thankful for my amazing vet and how he involved me in the process. He knew that although I was extremely worried. the vet student side of me wanted to know everything that was happening. It was scary and inspiring at the same time. It also showed me the ups and downs of diagnostics - the rads we did ended up being pretty much useless (slightly enlarged heart was probably just due to aging), but we had to do them because of her laboured breathing. Thankfully my little girl is doing great and will be coming to school with me in a few weeks, and in the mean time I'm going to focus on the fact that in a few years I am going to be able to make many people and animals as happy as my vet made us this week :)
PS - one week til Phase 2 begins!!!! :)
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| My little trooper looking stylish in her vet wrap :) |
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