Saturday, June 27, 2009

Hi !!!!

Hi Maggie and Mitch :-) Thanks so much for checking up on me. I'm well on the mend, want to see? Click the little movie below. I had my stitches out on Tuesday and I was a very good little girl. Now mom and nanna have to get me used to my old food again. *sigh*, I like the new stuff, it's soft.... :-) Anyway, today was around 80 and not a cloud in the sky so we all went out on an adventure for the day. I ran into these two young men who played and played with me. I was running around in circles around them and playing with them for a long time. Then two of their friends came along and I played with them for a bit too.


It was a day of adventure alright. We decided to go to the music garden at the lakeshore and bow wow wow two streetcars crashed!! After looking at the crash (no one was really hurt, mostly just shaken up and scared), we went to the music garden. We love the music garden, so many pretty things to smell and see. I saw the swans again today too! And the Canada Geese. On the way home we got food. Nanna gave me a little bit of her hotdog. yum yummy in my tummy! Mom gave me a couple of little liver treats too cause I was such a good girl all day. We were out for almost 7 hrs! I had lots of nice cold water to drink too while we were out. Mom always carries water for me and ice water for herself so she mixes the two so my water is nice and refreshing. Now we're finally home for the night and I'm pooped and am going to lay out on the bedroom floor under the ceiling fan :-)

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

All's well !!

Finally. After a run-in with no pee-pee, no appetite and a fairly good fever Christaligia is on the mend. She was force fed once which she took really rather well :-) Today she went back to the Dr. Her own Dr. was back from a conference so he was really glad to see her. The staff had been keeping him up to date on her while he was away. Today he took her stitches out and checked her out once more and sent her home with flying colours :-) She can go to the groomer in a week's time. Karen ought to have some time trying to even out her coat with her tummy shaved and part of her side shaved. And she can start to eat bits of her old food now too mixed in with the soft diet for a bit. We have to slowly get her back on her normal kibble diet. She can have limited treats now too!! She likes that. Ohhhhh and the best thing is....... no more lampshade!! Yippee for her! People would laugh at her and call her "conehead"! Poor baby. But the Dr. says she should be completely mended in another 2 weeks.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

I have a fever :-(

Today mom decided to take me back to the Dr. She talked to one of our clinic's Dr's late last night and he said I wasn't eating enough. Today when we got there I still hadn't eaten much but I did eat a little more than yesterday. But it was discovered that I had a fever! Mom says that explains why I just want to lay around and not do much including eat and pee! It was high but not seriously high. The Dr. took more blood and gave me a pill to induce my appetite. Dr. Elizabeth also kind of force fed me some to get some in my little tummy. I didn't fight her much. She says I'm a sweet dog.

Later in the day we went for a nice walk and I ran ahead of mom most the way! Her and nanna were glad to see this, I was acting more normal. I even barked at a lady that wouldn't pay attention to me this evening and then she played with me a bit :-) And I howled at the fire alarm when I heard it.... heheheh I hate that thing and I reminded mom and nanna just how much I hate it :-) So around 7:30 pm the Dr. called mom again to check up on me and see if I ate yet but mom told her no. Not long after that around 9;30 mom called the Dr. to tell her that I peed!!! lol and I also ate some without the pill! Mom told her that she thinks I'm feeling better because I was running and playing a wee bit. By the time we got home I was really wacked out though and slept on the sofa. We are all hoping tomorrow is a more normal day for me and Dr. Elizabeth said she will call in the morning to check on me again and to give mom the results of the new blood tests.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Monday June 15th, 2009

I went out for a short walk yesterday and did my "duty" :-) I got lots of praise. I rode on mom's scooter a lot too. I didn't eat much yesterday though. Today I wasn't all that hungry and mom and nanna took me for another short walk. I did well but only did a little peepee. hmmmmm mom doesn't like that but since I'm not eating much again today she said she'll accept it. She put in a call to the Vet though since my appetite isn't much and we are going tomorrow to get something from the Dr. that will give me an appetite so I eat more. It may be the medicine's I'm on. I'm on a pain patch and it's strong and I'm on an antibiotic so they may be making my tummy a bit upset. I'm sleepy a lot too but that's also probably the pain patch. Tomorrow afternoon we'll go see the Dr. and I'm sure I'll start feeling better from there on. Mom says I seem to have a case of the whines whenever one of us isn't within sight lately. This morning I whined and cried until mom got out of bed then I stopped. And this afternoon when nanna left us while we were out I tried following her several times. And then tonight when mom was at the door talking to our neighbour and I couldn't see her, I started to whine again. Mom thinks maybe I'm just scared I'll be left alone again like at the Vets. She thinks it will take me a bit of time to get back to normal. I got a bit excited tonight when Tom came for a visit. He's mom's computer techie and he's very nice. He stopped and petted me for a bit so I was happy and wagged my tail :-) Now I'm off to bed for the night with my nanna.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

I'm home!! update... June 13th, 2009

Well our little girl is home. Don't think she could care less though. Once we got her home we could barely get her off my scooter. They applied a pain patch to her before we left the vet and it really got her stoned.
Then the poor baby tried to drink but that collar was in her way so I adjusted it and boy did she have a nice long drink. After that she wanted on her spot on the sofa. She has a leopard doggie blanket with pillow in the corner and that's her space.


Again the poor thing had an issue. She wanted up on the sofa but with the collar on she couldn't. So we removed it for a brief minute and the little bugger tried to lick her wound.

Seems she is going to have to wear this thing all the time whether she likes it or not. You can tell in this picture how drugged she is.

I came home with lots of instructions. Including the fact she can go out for walks and such!! Great news but obviously not today. She had anti-biotics and the pain patch. It will last her 4 days then her pain should be pretty much over.


Her incision is long as you can see. We go back in 10 days to get the stitches removed. She gets a special diet until then as well which they tell me she's taking well. Of course she is, it's like a treat, it's soft food!! :-)
As one would think, we must watch for itchy, runny or redness and go right back. Over the next few days we'll get her out a bit at a time.






It's been a couple of hours since she got home, had to stop and go out for groceries. She's awake now and has even eaten. She seemed very hungry but we stuck to what the Dr. said and she gets a bit every few hours. 4 small meals a day.
Now the little devil is trying to scratch with her back legs so I'm going to have to put socks on her or a t-shirt or something so she doesn't claw at those stitches. Can't have her pulling any out!



Friday, June 12, 2009

another update:

Earlier today we went to the Vet's office and paid Ligia a little visit. She was totally unaware though. We had one of the staff take a couple of pictures for us instead of going in. We thought she would get too excited if she saw either of us and too upset if we didn't take her home after she saw us. So....... although it felt cruel not to go in, we think it would have been meaner to her if we had and then left without her. Here are her pictures: The top one you can see her leg is all bandaged but this is because she has an i.v. in and they don't want her to be able to bite it off. She looks so sad and in pain. The bottom picture is a bit better. I don't know what's all on her chin, maybe something from when they put the tube down her throat??? Don't really know but the way she's standing she looks awkward and in pain. They are giving her narcotics for the pain. The reason she doesn't have the cone on around her little neck is because they had just tried giving her some water. These pics were taken about 24 hrs after her surgery.


Earlier in the day they tried some water and she wouldn't take any. They tried a bit of very watered down soft food and she took a couple of licks. This evening around 7:15 pm my cell phone rang and it was the Dr. She told me Christaligia took some water finally and those few licks of food. This was good. She wouldn't take the food or water in the cage, they had to let her out and then she ate a bit :-) She took a very short walk earlier today in the clinic too and pee'd. :-) Hopefully they took out her catheter. She's still on i.v. and pain meds. The Dr. told me we can bring her home tomorrow (Saturday). We can't wait. She is not to get her tummy wet at all. She'll have antibiotics and they're going to shave her back and apply a pain patch that will last her for 4 days. By then she should be over the worst of the pain I hope. That will be 6 days. Ligia can ride home on my scooter. The Dr. was worried she'd get off but she never has jumped off before. (I use a mobility scooter, I'm not talking about a motorcycle type scooter). I'm going to take her bed and put it on the floor of the scooter and slowly ride home with her. I could take a cab however I'm not comfortable with picking her up and carrying her right now with such fresh stitches and I can't carry her from the cab all the way upstairs, I'm not able to. The scooter will be fine, I'll also put her pink blankie in there too, it's nice and soft as well as her bed. And bumps along the way that we feel should be buffered for her with how slow I'll drive and the blanket and bed. Matter of fact I'm taking both her beds and maybe will use both so she's double soft.

Anyway, she's to be fed 5 times a day, tiny meals of special food so she can disgest it and it won't hurt her little tummy incision. This will be for about a week then we can start to introduce her normal food back in slowly with this food until we are all her old normal food. She's not allowed to jump or play right now. I'll make her some stairs so she can get on the sofa to her favourite place in the corner. We take her back in about 10 days to get all her stitches out. I'll get more directions tomorrow I'm sure.

I'll try to get some more pictures tomorrow after she rests a while at home. I'm sure she's going to be upset with us for some time and it will take her a while to trust us again. After all, look what's she been through, she's been held in a cage for some time, and all strangers and lots of pain. Poor thing, I feel really guilty although there is nothing I could have done. I'm thankful she's ok now and on her way home to us.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

update:

Christaligia is doing ok. I spoke to her Dr. at around 5 pm this evening and she was pretty drugged up. She's on an i.v. pump and narcotics for the pain. As well as an antacid to protect her little tummy. When Dr. Elizabeth opened her up she found a very large bone. Like a beef bone!!! What's more, it was literally stuck to the inside of her tummy. It may have been her saving grace that it was stuck to her tummy and not moving because the Dr. said she would never have been able to pass such a large thing. I asked how on earth she could have ever eaten such a large thing and was told small dogs can swallow large items, it's just when they're inside they can do considerable damage and even kill a dog when and if it tries to pass it. So..... we're hoping that she doesn't wake up this evening and not find herself in her nanna's bed with nanna and be really upset. I think she'll be on enough drugs to sleep the night through. The Dr. will try to give her a bit of water tomorrow and if she takes that, later in the day she'll give her a wee bit of a gruel type food and see if she can take that. We plan on going to see her tomorrow but to protect her, we'll give someone on staff my digital camera probably and have them take some pics for us. If we go in and she's awake, she may be very upset if we don't take her home and that's not good for her. If all goes as planned, we will bring her home sometime Saturday. Thank goodness she's ok and thank goodness for pet insurance! This was a whopper of a bill although I'm more than willing to pay anything to help our little girl.

I'm a sick little girl

Last night my mom got home from a meeting at 8:30 and I was on the sofa waiting for her. She didn't know if but I wasn't feeling well. When she went into the kitchen nanna yelled out to her that I was throwing up. Mom ran to me and it was really yukky! It was orange!! Looked like treats but I hadn't had any treats. And there was an elastic in it!!!!!! Mom was freakin out. I curled up in my corner of the couch and then started again. This time it was a peachy/orange coloured foam!! I didn't look good. Then I did it a 3rd time and it was much the same as the second but this time my little teeth started to chatter too! Mom grabbed the phone and called the Vet. They were going to close in about 15 minutes but told mom to bring me in. So she did.

My vet wasn't here, he's on a trip so he always has 2 other vets in his clinic so I saw the nice Dr. Elizabeth. Mom brought what I threw up and even the vet said "yuck". She checked me over good, I had no fever but my gums were a bit pale. She took an x-ray and there it was!!! Something else is in my tummy! It wasn't an absolute emergency so mom was able to take me home for the night and bring me back early in the morning.

I sleep on my nanna's bed and I'm sorry but I barfed on her bed a little bit in the night. She loves me though so it's ok. :-) Mom and nanna took me to the hospital this morning and my surgery will take about an hour and a half and I'll have to stay there 2 days too. The Dr. took another x-ray because it wasn't in my morning poop. Whatever it is, is still there. It isn't even moving. Mom said it looked like a man's wedding band sort of and the Dr. said it was bigger!!

They have no idea what I ate or when for that matter because I'm closely watched. And even though I normally don't pick stuff up, occasionally I do and boy I'm a fast little girl. Mom and nanna are very worried about me..... mom will write more here later.