But: most of you don't know why- because I haven't really been ready to talk about it.
In the evening one night Nuff Nuff seemed to have a tummy ache. He wouldn't eat all of his food, which worried me. It was late, so I took him to the vet in the morning. That morning he looked even worse but the vet seemed pretty confident that Nuff just got into something he shouldn't have. I really, really didn't feel like that was right: but he's the vet right? He put Nuff on fluids for no more than 3 hours and then sent him home.
When I got there to pick him up Nuff looked even worse. When I asked the vet assured me that he just needed to fast and get whatever it was out of his system. This really didn't seem right to me, but he's the vet: right?
Nuff got worse and worse. So again the next morning I was at the vet. Our usual vet was gone. This vet knew this was a little worse than an upset stomach. She told us it was Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis, aka mutant diarrhea. She told us she was going to put him on fluids and sent us home. Still, something felt way off: to both my husband and I. I called the office every hour for 5 hours. The vet was always busy and was always going to call me right back. Only: she never did. In the late afternoon we just drove down there and showed up. They took us into a room and brought in Nuff- then they left and no one told us a thing. We were in there 45 minutes: nuff completely non-responsive.
We were supposed to be saying goodbye. When I told my husband my suspicion he went out and demanded the doc come in and talk to us. She did. She told us that she had tried every leg and she wasn't able to get fluids in him and that he wasn't going to make it through the night. (yes. they had him there for 5 hours and never bothered to pick up the phone and tell us they couldn't get an IV in him. So, they weren't giving him anything at all. He was just there wrapped up in a towel for 5 hours).
My husband knew that there were options when it came to getting the fluids in. He pressed her for at least 15 minutes. She finally told us that there was a chance a more well equipped animal hospital could have gotten in a central line: but they couldn't. (again, she didn't tell us this as soon as she had figured it out several hours earlier...) He pushed her some more, asking her what she would do with Nuff if he was her dog. She told us she would take him to a 24 hour animal hospital not to far from us: so we literally ran out with Nuff and drove the heck away.
When we got there the nurses came and took him straight back. Within 15 minutes the vet there was able to get fluids in him the old fashioned way, no central line needed. After another 30 he was perking right up. He went from total unresponsiveness to standing up when we came in to see him. The verdict: pancreatitis. All he needed from the minute he got sick was fluids until his body cleared everything out. Things were looking good now that he was on fluids and in a good animal hospital things seemed to be looking up.
But not for long.
He had been off of fluids, not eating or drinking for so long prior to us moving him to PBVS that his kidneys had failed. The vet there told us that had we gotten him in earlier things likely would have turned out very differently.
We lost him because our vet was to busy to tell us that they couldn't get a line in him, that there was a place literally right down the road that could do it straight away. And really: we lost him because neither my husband or I acted on our initial instinct the first night they sent him home that this was something much worse than they were telling us.
So the moral of the story:
ALWAYS listen to your gut, and NEVER be subdued by the authority of a doctor. There are other doctors. And do it right away. Imagine how much you would regret not following your instinct?
