Howllo Fellow Basset Hound and Health Announcement Lovers….

Thursday evening the Mayor had a bloat incident. He is recovering.

Link to information about Bloat in this website with links to other information.  Read this over and over again to be prepared if this happens to your beloved hound. 

I am just now updating the residents about this because I do not like to drag everyone through the urgent and sometimes hysterical moments of an emergency.  I wanted to wait a few days and see if I could report good news instead of frantic news. I am pleased to report good news.

First off, let me do some background.  Bloat is a serious emergency.  You cannot “wait and see”.  I urge all of you to read the link above and all the links contained within.  I also urge you to print out this bloat chart that was a critical guide for my BFF and I Thursday night.

I have this hanging in my kitchen cabinet along with the dog CPR chart.

My BFF was over for Pizza and Presents Thursday night.  We have been BFF since kindergarten.

Chaps got excited as he always does when she comes over.  We both noticed him drinking an excessive amount of water with big glups breathing in air.  It just went right over my head.  This is a huge no no.  If you ever hear this take the water up immediately.  Please go to the links and read all of this because what happened to Chaps was basically text book.

He began throwing up white stiff foam and he was in shear pain and panic.  I went and grabbed the bloat chart and BFF was reading out loud.  Within seconds Chaps abdomen swelled up to about a basketball.

Several seconds later Janie grabbed him and Chaps and I were both in her back seat heading to the ER.  During our trip I had my arms around his stomach.  As we turned a corner he was able to release the contents which was about 2 gallons of water, fluid, and food…projectile.  His stomach went down like a balloon.

We made it to the ER and it was obvious the emergency was over but that is no sure bet that it would not continue.  So we waited our turn.

We did not have to wait too long because I think we were the only ones there.

The Vet technician came in and was amazing.  She referred to what he had as a food bloat (which was not exactly true) and all of his vitals were normal.

When the doctor did come in, he was cold and down right shameful to his profession.  I did not think I could experience a worse Vet than the specialist I took Emma to for her liver but I did.  Amazing but true.  This Vet had 25 places for me sign my name regarding Chaps.  He was so paranoid about getting his money and not being sued it totally clouded his mind regarding standard of care and the needs of the patient.  This is the same place that Emma went but during the day it is a speciality clinic and at night it is the ER.

The vet, whom I will be reviewing online, was pushing and pushing for me to spend 1000 dollars that night to do a complete work-up of Chaps and he was saying that on top of that he would probably need to do surgery. No wonder he was so aggressive, I basically signed away all of my rights to get a vet to look at Chaps.  It is just uncalled for.  In other words….Plain and simple harassment.

I asked howl much the office visit was (80.00) and left.

So, the next day I took Chaps to his regular vet.

Dr. Doan took 2 x-rays of the area.

He did see some mild to moderate gas and a slight twist area that caused the bloat that he was not too worried about.  He felt fine treating the situation with medication after listening to all of the facts.  He however told me that at anytime, if the elements presented themselves, he could bloat again.  Dr. Doan does not like the odds of Chaps ever having this type of surgery and I had already come to that conclusion before we even heard that from him.  It was nice to hear his take on it and to be in agreement.

So, there you have it.  One day The Mayor is up on the hill loving life and next…he is in the ER.

More roller coaster rides later…hopefully, the ones going up hill…Love, Cat, Chaps and Emma ATB keeping the Mayor safe.

 

 

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