LJ Idol Season 8: Week 36(B); One Way or the Other
It's been two months and finally, I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. By and far, this has been the hardest two months of my life and every day, I live in fear that it'll all happen again.
Because we still don't know exactly what happened.
She woke up one Sunday morning unable to walk and she was unresponsive, though she was fine just the day before. Kevin carried her to his car because my 100 pound giant couldn't walk at all.
The emergency vet thought she stepped on a nail and damaged her paw. From there, he thought she’d developed an infection that had caused her 104.7 degree fever. He wanted to keep her on an IV, get her fever down and send her home with some medicine.
When it came time to pay, the invoice stated $900.
"I can't afford it..." I sobbed right there in the clinic.
"What can you afford?" the kind woman asked.
"I could probably scrape together $600." That was all the money I had to my name. Thankfully, they agreed to give me a discount because she couldn't go without any of the services being offered. She stayed there for 12 hours that day, and I kept calling to ask them when I could bring her home. I wanted my baby back with me so badly.
Though upon bringing her home, she collapsed on the floor and wouldn't move to go potty or anything. I took the next day off work to stay with her, and thankfully I did... Her paw started bleeding nonstop. I tried wrapping it myself per my vet's instructions, but she quickly bled through a cut up bath towel.
I wanted to cry. I was broke and she needed to go to the vet. I had about $200 stashed as an emergency fund and I grabbed that before taking her in. The verdict there? A foxtail had likely gotten into her skin and worked its way up into the wound. The cost? $250.
I wasn’t sure what to do or where the money would come from. But I called around and I was told that if it were a foxtail, I’d need to get it removed right away. So I scraped together some cash from my piggy bank and figured I might end up having to let my account be overdrawn, but I took her in. Thankfully, I took her in when I did.
(The above photo is of Annabelle's two paws right before she started bleeding profusely. The one is normal sized, while the other is about twice the size it should be.)
I was at work when the vet called me, fear in her voice. I could hear her voice wavering and she confirmed Annabelle survived the procedure but that something was very, very wrong.
When she’d opened the bandage, the small puncture wound from the day before had turned into a large piece of rotting flesh. Her skin was liquefying and had done so at such a fast rate, the vet was terrified she might lose her entire leg. She told me several times over, “her toenail fell off in my hand...”
She really didn’t give me much hope and I was at a loss... She told me to pick her up and we’d just have to monitor her daily, run butt loads of tests and see what we could do. She prepared me for the worst though... If it kept necrotizing at this rate, she might have to lose her leg. Which being that she’s a big dog, I had to consider her quality of life...
I burst into tears right at my desk.
I had a choice to make. I could consider putting her down or fighting for it. If we fought, I was looking at perhaps several thousand dollars in vet bills and she might not even make it since we weren’t sure what we were fighting.
The vet thought maybe flesh-eating bacteria. Or perhaps a rattlesnake bite. But I’m with her all the time, and the dog park we were at the night before? Doesn’t have rattlesnakes supposedly. Though now that I recall, she was acting strangely...
We were playing ball, she would run after the partially deflated basketball and bring it back for us to throw again. At one point, she stopped wanting to go after the ball. I joked that she was lazy, but she would start in the direction and back off, preferring to stay at my side.
I should have noticed her weird behavior, but it’s Annabelle... She is afraid of most things from hula hoops to pumpkins to the blinds in my apartment. I never thought twice about her being afraid of something at the dog park. She's afraid of everything. She finds something new to be afraid of every day. I figured the ball had made a funny noise or something.
I soon realized it was much worse than that.
I wasn’t sure what to do. She was severely sick and unable to walk at all. I felt like she was dying on me, and this girl is my best friend. I couldn’t imagine life without her... The only reason I’d control my sobbing at home was because it frightened her to see me cry. I'd burst into tears just looking at her, and she'd assumed she had done something wrong and would often hide, making me feel worse for my poor, sick puppy dog.
So I did what I had to do. I posted her story on my LJ and put up a Paypal link. I had assumed perhaps I might get a couple hundred dollars and I could pull money out of my measly IRA for the rest, and just pray that it was enough.
Nothing could have prepared me the e-mails I received the next morning. Paypal had sent me so many, I lost count. I logged in to my account and nearly fell out of bed.
The next few days stunned me even more. I couldn’t believe how far and wide Annabelle’s message had gotten. $100 from Paris, France, another $150 from Poland. Scotland, Russia even. People from all over the world were donating sums of money large and small. I wanted to put a halt to it at one point, but even then... Gifts came flooding in.
I was beyond flabbergasted and amazed. I won’t give a final total, but it blew me away. I need to send out "Thank You" cards soon, but how do I send out cards to over 300 people?
And it just so happened to cost right about what had been donated. Every last dime was spent on Annabelle’s treatment. I’d needed every little bit to keep my sweet puppy alive.
The first week required daily hospitalization, which was $250 a day. Her tests? Just in the first week was over $800. Originally, she was on 5 antibiotics, one of which cost me $100 a week. The bacteria they found in the wound is a common secondary infection from a rattlesnake bite, and it was also resistant to most antibiotics except for one that had to be injected daily. Weeks of that, including visiting the vet on Saturday and Sunday for those, adds up. Daily bandage changes for almost two months straight also adds up to a lot of time and money.
At the beginning of June, the necrotizing flesh had cleared up, the infection was gone. But her toe was essentially gone as well, which meant we had to amputate. Originally the vet had only wanted to take the tip of her toe off, much like when declawing a cat, but upon entering the wound, she realized the bone had been infected further up than she thought and she removed a bit more.
They had installed a drain and some sutures, which Annabelle didn’t care for so she removed those herself, slowing the healing down. The vet had decided it wasn’t worth redoing them, so the wound was left to heal naturally, which takes time and required daily vet visits, bandage changes and constant supervision.
From there, we had swelling that we couldn’t explain, bleeding from irritation, you name it. I have to keep her “socked” at all times to make sure she doesn’t lick at it, so this requires me to change her bandage daily. Nightly soaks in Betadine and Epsom salts are an ongoing thing in my life. She's so used to it now, I don't even have to hold her paw in the dish. We just sit there, side by side and let it soak. She's such a good dog; I'm not sure we could have done all this if she weren't.
When the vet suggested I start brushing her teeth too? I wanted to ask her... When do I get time to brush her teeth with all the home care I already do! Though we are getting there... Slowly, but surely, we are getting there.
Annabelle may have chronic pain in her paw for the rest of her life, only time will tell. She limps if she plays too hard, and she flinches if I go near her paw. But she’s fine once I’m holding it, so I’m not sure what it is.
Currently, she’s playful and rambunctious and greeting Kevin with kisses like never before. She jumped over me today and scratched me all up, kicked Kevin in the chest and has chased the cats around the apartment so much, I can barely get anything done.
But through it all, I’m just so happy to have my girl back. I really would do anything for her. After all, I believe when I took her under my wing, when I adopted her, I made her a promise. It’s my personal responsibility as a pet owner to make sure she has the best life I can give her.
Anything less than that would not be suitable. And thankfully with the help of so many here on LJ and strangers from around the world, I have my giant beast of a dog back to normal. Well as normal as this big goofy girl can get.
(This is my third of five entries for Hell Week in
therealljidol. I am so proud of myself for getting out all five entries in a matter of days with everything I have going on with Annabelle and work. Thank you so much for reading! If there is a poll this evening, I'd highly recommend everyone head over there to read and vote for all the amazing entries. Thank you for all your support through the weeks!)
Because we still don't know exactly what happened.
She woke up one Sunday morning unable to walk and she was unresponsive, though she was fine just the day before. Kevin carried her to his car because my 100 pound giant couldn't walk at all.
The emergency vet thought she stepped on a nail and damaged her paw. From there, he thought she’d developed an infection that had caused her 104.7 degree fever. He wanted to keep her on an IV, get her fever down and send her home with some medicine.
When it came time to pay, the invoice stated $900.
"I can't afford it..." I sobbed right there in the clinic.
"What can you afford?" the kind woman asked.
"I could probably scrape together $600." That was all the money I had to my name. Thankfully, they agreed to give me a discount because she couldn't go without any of the services being offered. She stayed there for 12 hours that day, and I kept calling to ask them when I could bring her home. I wanted my baby back with me so badly.
Though upon bringing her home, she collapsed on the floor and wouldn't move to go potty or anything. I took the next day off work to stay with her, and thankfully I did... Her paw started bleeding nonstop. I tried wrapping it myself per my vet's instructions, but she quickly bled through a cut up bath towel.
I wanted to cry. I was broke and she needed to go to the vet. I had about $200 stashed as an emergency fund and I grabbed that before taking her in. The verdict there? A foxtail had likely gotten into her skin and worked its way up into the wound. The cost? $250.
I wasn’t sure what to do or where the money would come from. But I called around and I was told that if it were a foxtail, I’d need to get it removed right away. So I scraped together some cash from my piggy bank and figured I might end up having to let my account be overdrawn, but I took her in. Thankfully, I took her in when I did.
(The above photo is of Annabelle's two paws right before she started bleeding profusely. The one is normal sized, while the other is about twice the size it should be.)
I was at work when the vet called me, fear in her voice. I could hear her voice wavering and she confirmed Annabelle survived the procedure but that something was very, very wrong.
When she’d opened the bandage, the small puncture wound from the day before had turned into a large piece of rotting flesh. Her skin was liquefying and had done so at such a fast rate, the vet was terrified she might lose her entire leg. She told me several times over, “her toenail fell off in my hand...”
She really didn’t give me much hope and I was at a loss... She told me to pick her up and we’d just have to monitor her daily, run butt loads of tests and see what we could do. She prepared me for the worst though... If it kept necrotizing at this rate, she might have to lose her leg. Which being that she’s a big dog, I had to consider her quality of life...
I burst into tears right at my desk.
I had a choice to make. I could consider putting her down or fighting for it. If we fought, I was looking at perhaps several thousand dollars in vet bills and she might not even make it since we weren’t sure what we were fighting.
The vet thought maybe flesh-eating bacteria. Or perhaps a rattlesnake bite. But I’m with her all the time, and the dog park we were at the night before? Doesn’t have rattlesnakes supposedly. Though now that I recall, she was acting strangely...
We were playing ball, she would run after the partially deflated basketball and bring it back for us to throw again. At one point, she stopped wanting to go after the ball. I joked that she was lazy, but she would start in the direction and back off, preferring to stay at my side.
I should have noticed her weird behavior, but it’s Annabelle... She is afraid of most things from hula hoops to pumpkins to the blinds in my apartment. I never thought twice about her being afraid of something at the dog park. She's afraid of everything. She finds something new to be afraid of every day. I figured the ball had made a funny noise or something.
I soon realized it was much worse than that.
I wasn’t sure what to do. She was severely sick and unable to walk at all. I felt like she was dying on me, and this girl is my best friend. I couldn’t imagine life without her... The only reason I’d control my sobbing at home was because it frightened her to see me cry. I'd burst into tears just looking at her, and she'd assumed she had done something wrong and would often hide, making me feel worse for my poor, sick puppy dog.
So I did what I had to do. I posted her story on my LJ and put up a Paypal link. I had assumed perhaps I might get a couple hundred dollars and I could pull money out of my measly IRA for the rest, and just pray that it was enough.
Nothing could have prepared me the e-mails I received the next morning. Paypal had sent me so many, I lost count. I logged in to my account and nearly fell out of bed.
The next few days stunned me even more. I couldn’t believe how far and wide Annabelle’s message had gotten. $100 from Paris, France, another $150 from Poland. Scotland, Russia even. People from all over the world were donating sums of money large and small. I wanted to put a halt to it at one point, but even then... Gifts came flooding in.
I was beyond flabbergasted and amazed. I won’t give a final total, but it blew me away. I need to send out "Thank You" cards soon, but how do I send out cards to over 300 people?
And it just so happened to cost right about what had been donated. Every last dime was spent on Annabelle’s treatment. I’d needed every little bit to keep my sweet puppy alive.
The first week required daily hospitalization, which was $250 a day. Her tests? Just in the first week was over $800. Originally, she was on 5 antibiotics, one of which cost me $100 a week. The bacteria they found in the wound is a common secondary infection from a rattlesnake bite, and it was also resistant to most antibiotics except for one that had to be injected daily. Weeks of that, including visiting the vet on Saturday and Sunday for those, adds up. Daily bandage changes for almost two months straight also adds up to a lot of time and money.
At the beginning of June, the necrotizing flesh had cleared up, the infection was gone. But her toe was essentially gone as well, which meant we had to amputate. Originally the vet had only wanted to take the tip of her toe off, much like when declawing a cat, but upon entering the wound, she realized the bone had been infected further up than she thought and she removed a bit more.
They had installed a drain and some sutures, which Annabelle didn’t care for so she removed those herself, slowing the healing down. The vet had decided it wasn’t worth redoing them, so the wound was left to heal naturally, which takes time and required daily vet visits, bandage changes and constant supervision.
From there, we had swelling that we couldn’t explain, bleeding from irritation, you name it. I have to keep her “socked” at all times to make sure she doesn’t lick at it, so this requires me to change her bandage daily. Nightly soaks in Betadine and Epsom salts are an ongoing thing in my life. She's so used to it now, I don't even have to hold her paw in the dish. We just sit there, side by side and let it soak. She's such a good dog; I'm not sure we could have done all this if she weren't.
When the vet suggested I start brushing her teeth too? I wanted to ask her... When do I get time to brush her teeth with all the home care I already do! Though we are getting there... Slowly, but surely, we are getting there.
Annabelle may have chronic pain in her paw for the rest of her life, only time will tell. She limps if she plays too hard, and she flinches if I go near her paw. But she’s fine once I’m holding it, so I’m not sure what it is.
Currently, she’s playful and rambunctious and greeting Kevin with kisses like never before. She jumped over me today and scratched me all up, kicked Kevin in the chest and has chased the cats around the apartment so much, I can barely get anything done.
But through it all, I’m just so happy to have my girl back. I really would do anything for her. After all, I believe when I took her under my wing, when I adopted her, I made her a promise. It’s my personal responsibility as a pet owner to make sure she has the best life I can give her.
Anything less than that would not be suitable. And thankfully with the help of so many here on LJ and strangers from around the world, I have my giant beast of a dog back to normal. Well as normal as this big goofy girl can get.
(This is my third of five entries for Hell Week in
therealljidol. I am so proud of myself for getting out all five entries in a matter of days with everything I have going on with Annabelle and work. Thank you so much for reading! If there is a poll this evening, I'd highly recommend everyone head over there to read and vote for all the amazing entries. Thank you for all your support through the weeks!)