Current mood:	depressed
Entry tags:	sakura

Sakura's Medical Troubles
This past week has been emotionally exhausting.

On Saturday, Sakura began vomiting. She probably vomited on Saturday for a total of approximately twenty times. We could tell that her stomach was upset (we could tell from her vomiting and her mood in general).

Sunday, she vomited about three times, but she still was not looking very well. She refused to eat anything, and she wasn't able to excrete.

On Monday, she was still vomiting and still not looking well. She ate some food but none of it stayed down. We took her to the vet. The vet x-rayed her and the x-rays showed a possible foreign body in her stomach, as well as a possible blockage in her intestine. Sakura was given something to reduce the nausea and we took her home overnight, with the goal to get her to pass the foreign body (excrete it out). If she wouldn't be able to pass it, she would need $1000 surgery.

Rob took her on several very long walks, but she was unable to excrete at all. On Tuesday morning we took her back to the vet. They x-rayed her and it looked like the foreign body was still there, so they did surgery on her. They had to do about ten incisions on her to get all of it out of her.

The foreign body ended up being a mix of plastic, hair, and tennis ball fuzz. The plastic was from the plastic water bottles we used to let her chew on, and the tennis ball fuzz was from a frisbee made from tennis ball material. We threw out the frisbee and we have vowed to never allow her any plastic water bottles ever again.

After we brought her home Tuesday night she was extremely drugged and in a lot of pain. Today she is still not feeling well but the sedation has worn off. I was able to get her to eat a tiny bit of food. She even attempted to play with her rope toy, bless her heart, but she wasn't able to do much. She went into the room where I had put it and stared at it. I brought it into the computer room where I was and she picked it up, but that was about all she could manage.

It was a very expensive and very emotional toll-inducing lesson to learn that the plastic water bottles were a bad idea. However, I'm so very grateful that the price we had to pay was $1000, and that the price was not a dead dog. I am so grateful that she is still alive. I love my baby girl. I would be beyond devastated if she passed before her time. I love her so much and I am so afraid that I will lose her.

All I want is my happy, loud, energetic, chews-on-way-too-many-things puppy back.


(this is by no means a recent picture, she hates getting her picture taken so I wouldn't dare do that while she is feeling this horrible)