My sick pup :(

So many of you know I have a dog that is allergic to grass (among other things)…a bit ironic I know. Anyway, as the seasons are changing we both seem to be fighting the allergy battles together. My head feels like it may explode and poor hope is itching all over. About a week ago both dogs were sick and we assumed from the symptoms that they had gotten into something (who knows what, I’m thinking they ate something dead). After nursing them back to health with long nights awake by their sides and a mild diet of chicken and rice we thought we were in the clear. That was until hope got sick again the other night with similar symptoms (I won’t go into detail because they are pretty much disgusting) along with her usual red eyes, rash on her stomach and general pink color. Since she is a dog, and allergic to grass, this “pink” color has become pretty normal for my babe, so I didn’t think too much of it as a symptom.

Friday, after a night of about 2 ½ hours of total sleep I headed to work. All I could do was think of her home in her crate getting sick and there was nothing I could do about it, I had to go to work. So I came home at lunch, let her out and cleaned up the mess. It was really nice outside and I knew M1 would be coming home early so I left her outside. It broke my heart to leave her but I headed back to work then on to the bakery. The entire time I was at work I kept running through horror stories in my head…and not just the bad one’s…but the really bad ones. Like what would I do if I came home to find her dead in her crate, bad ones? So after literally making myself sick to my stomach with worry I called M1 and asked how she was doing. He said he was really worried about her so I did my best to compose myself and ask if it was ok for me to leave the bakery early to take her to the emergency vet. L was really great about it and understood that she is kind of like my kid and told me to go ahead and we could just start an hour earlier the next day to make up for lost time.

The entire vet experience was much better than I had imagined. I called ahead to get their opinion and they said to go ahead and bring her in. I got there at about 10:00pm and started filling out paperwork. Everyone who walked by was excited to see her but worried about how red she was. She had hives all over her back, her lips were red and swollen and her eyes blood shot (most of which had happened since I had last seen her at lunch). The vet was going into surgery but made a point to come check on hope before hand. She decided it was an allergic reaction and took her back to get two injections of steroids, benadryl, and an anti nausea dose. We had to wait 30min so they could check her again so I made friends with some girls who had a sick puppy and had time to call my mom just to check up and see how they had been. After the surgery was over the vet came back out checked her again and gave her one more dose. She was very helpful, and very considerate of my pink pup. The nurse even sat with her so I could go check out without trying to sign out while holding a 55lb pitt bull in the other hand (not an easy feat by the way). We were able to get in, get her treated and get out in under an hour and a half. I had figured we would have been there all night. So although it does cost more to go to the vet in the middle of the night I was very happy with the service and the facility. I will sleep a little better knowing that there is a good emergency vet just a few min down the road.

The next step will be to get hope into the regular vet to start some allergy tests, but until then we will both be dosing on some benadryl and trying to make it through the spring. But how can your heart not melt for that face?!