One Week Checkup

I took Payton to the vet yesterday morning for her one week check up since we brought her home from the emergency vet. She got a really thorough exam and everything sounded and looked good. Her lungs both sounded good, her heart sounded good, and her ribs and legs all felt good. She got her staples out and had blood work done, which came back normal. When the vet was examining her she said "I can't believe she didn't loose any teeth." Well, upon further examination, she has a broken front tooth in her top row of teeth. It's not one of her canines, which is good. Since her blood work came back normal I will be taking her in tomorrow morning so that they can put her under in the afternoon and pull her tooth. I will be picking her up after five and hopefully that will be the last vet visit for this incident. Having her tooth pulled seems like a bummer, but we're just happy she lucked out and didn't have to have surgery for internal bleeding.

I ended up taking Taryn on a separate trip to the vet because her left ear has been bugging her and was all red inside. Turns out she has an ear infection that needed treatment. I had just given Payton her last dose of meds on Monday night, and they sent me home Tuesday morning with a handful of meds to start treating Taryn. We had Kylie at the vet a couple of days before Payton's accident because she had some sort of virus and was vomiting uncontrollably. So that makes all three dogs with health issues in the last two weeks. I am happy to report that all three girls are doing great today. Payton even went out on her first walk since she was hit and didn't seem to get tired. She looked like she wanted to head out again after I returned with Taryn from her walk.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Peace,
Jamie

Payton is Home!

I got a call about 7:15 this morning that we could come and get Payton and bring her home. This largely was based on the fact that both Mark and I are off work for the next couple of days. We will be able to keep a really close eye on her and she will not be left alone. She is on pain meds so she is really lethargic. I fed her some canned food, the same she has had the last couple of days at the vet, and mixed in her pain meds right when we got home. Payton is currently resting comfortably in her crate with her favorite blanket. I was going to take a picture to post but she doesn't like having a camera pointed at her when she is trying to rest.
She has a few superficial wounds on her leg and shoulder that required staples. The vet tech said that she was totally relaxed when they were putting the staples in and she was wagging her tail the whole time. This tech was great! She was the first to respond at the emergency vet with a gurney and rushed her off to be treated. She got Payton on an IV and was treating her shock. She told me this morning that Payton was so sweet the whole time and she was really focused on getting Payton back to us. We are thankful to her and the whole staff at ACCES 24 hour critical care. They treated Payton with professionalism and compassion. They also are aware of the bond between pets and their family and are sympathetic to owners emotional states. I watched them deal with a lot of families bringing their loved ones in on Saturday night.
This situation made me glad that I had an emergency plan in the event of one of our dogs needing to be rushed to the vets office on an evening or weekend. Our regular vet is less than 5 minutes away. This emergency vet was about 12 -15 minutes away. It is the closest one to our house. I had their number in my cell phone and called them to let them know we were on our way. It happens to be my first contact because it's a #, 24 hour ACCES.
Everyone should know where their nearest emergency vet is and have their number handy.
So Payton won't be able to play for a while. We figure she was always the instigator so hopefully she'll take it easy on her own. We'll be watching every minute she's not resting in her crate to make sure no one is getting frisky.
I'll keep you updated on her progress. Thanks to our friends and family sending us your love and support. You helped through a tough experience!

Peace,
Jamie

Payton Update

We just got back from visiting Payton and I'm happy to report that she is doing much better. I had called a couple of times today to see if it was a good time to come up and visit and each time the office said that they were dealing with emergencies and to call back later. The last time I called they said to come on up and that she was doing good. She was out of the oxygen chamber and had something to eat. She had also gone outside to do her business. Yeah! All good signs. She was very happy to see us when we arrived and of course looked like a goof with the cone around her neck. Mark got to take her outside to go potty again while I talked to the vet and it looks like we will be bringing her home tomorrow. We looked at the X-rays and she had broke 4 ribs and had alot of internal fluid. It will take about 8 weeks for a full recovery. She looked great even though she had a tube coming out of her nose and still would have to go back to her IV after we left. She just wanted our hands inside the cone to rest her head on our hands, just like she did in the oxygen tank last night. I know that she is going to be alright. We will be so thankful when she comes home. I guess we will be celebrating Thanksgiving early this year, just like we did almost a year ago to the day when we adopted our baby Payton. I remember last Thanksgiving being really mellow, just Mark and I, and all day long I was feeling that Payton was an example of what Thanksgiving is all about. Being Thankful. We were thankful about finding her and she was thankful that we found her.

Peace,
Jamie

Our Worst Nightmare!

I am still in shock about witnessing the horror of watching Payton get hit by a car last night. I am not in a position where I can give details, but Payton has been in doggy ICU since 6:00 last night. She doesn't have any broken limbs but she has internal damage, fractured ribs and some internal bleeding which seems to be better since last night. Her biggest problem was going into shock and labored breathing. She was in such bad shape when I got her to the emergency 24 hour vet that they couldn't stabilize her to even take any x-rays for a couple of hours. She went into an oxygen tank and was hooked up to a couple of IV's, one with fluids, and one with an opiate for her pain. She also got an injection of something to help with her protein levels. We were able to go in and visit her before we left for the night and it broke my heart and gave me hope at the same time. Her tail started wagging (slowly) when she saw us. They opened a little door so that we could reach in and pet her and she put her muzzle out the opening while resting her head on our hands. She looked me right in the eyes and seemed to say "I'm sorry, I'm going to be all right". Mark and I both were in tears when we left.
We got a phone call last night that was one of those good news bad news calls that left us with mixed emotions. The Vet told me that if the internal bleeding didn't stop and they had to do surgery that Payton might not make it due to her weak breathing. I was dying. I had been the one that had to keep my head on straight and get her to the vet, which seemed like a million miles away, and comfort Payton and Mark. After I got that phone call I lost it for a little bit. I had been saying over and over "She's so strong. She is going to be fine" and now I was crying and questioning what I could have done differently and blaming myself.
This morning she is doing better. From blood work it looks like the internal bleeding has stopped and she won't need surgery. Her body temperature is coming up and her breathing is not so labored. She is breathing at 95% inside the oxygen tank but only 75% outside. Right now she needs to be able to breath at close to 100% before they take her out of the oxygen tank. She will probably come home tomorrow unless she doesn't improve.
It's so quiet around here this morning without Payton. She has a lot of positive energy and every morning she wakes up stretches and gives us some really vocal yawns as if she's saying "Good morning world, here's Payton". I missed all of that fun energy this morning. Taryn and Kylie even seemed a little less exuberant to start their day and have breakfast.
We will visit her this afternoon. It's probably more for us than for Payton. She is crashed out on pain meds, but we just need to see her and touch her and let her know we are thinking about her 24/7.
I'll keep you posted on her progress.

Peace,
Jamie

Bump Watch Update

Well, after a few weeks of watching and waiting it seems that Payton's Seroma has gone away. Our vet, Dr. Lutz, said that it could take a while but eventually this fluid would be absorbed into her body. Payton never even knew that it was there so it wasn't too hard on us to wait. It is just nice to look down at her and not see that bump, just her loving face!

Peace,

Jamie

Bump Watch

I have actually had a health problem with Payton that I have been wanting to share but haven't been able to yet. She has a fluid filled bump on her side that our Vet is calling a Seroma. It is not bothering her in the slightest but it is bothersome to Mark and I that she has it. We have been waiting for it to shrink and go away along with giving her a couple doses of antibiotics daily to ward off infection. It seems like the bump got really big, shrank to almost nothing, and is bigger today. The Vet said that if it doesn't go away on it's own she will have to drain it internally. Not a good option, so we are waiting to see if it does go away on it's own. It's not easy to just play the waiting game. I will have to take her back to the Vet if she doesn't heal in the next couple of days. Like I said, it's business as usual for Payton. She doesn't even know that it's there. So she is not in discomfort while we wait to see what happens.
Of course I need to let you know how this may have happened. I was extremely worried when I discovered the bump because I have read about "bloat" being deadly. I went to a web site and refreshed myself on the symptoms of bloat. http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/bloat.html Some of the symptoms were similar to what Payton had. Bloat should be dealt with immediately. When I called the Vet about Paytons bump she asked to see her right away. We actually live only a few blocks away from our Vet so we were right there. After feeling the bump Dr. Lutz asked me if Payton played hard. I told her "Yes, all the time." Dr. Lutz said that her bump was a Seroma. Probably caused by playing hard with her sisters(I know that Payton and Kylie had a big game of American Gladiator going on right before I discovered the bump). She described it as an internal abscess that is just under her skin. She said that if her bump were bloat it would be hard and Payton's bump is soft, it feels like fluid. Dr. Lutz did take some X-rays to be sure it wasn't something else. Nothing unusual showed up in the X-rays except that she was due to poop which she did right when we got home. Of course her vet bill was over $200 with the X-rays. Luckily we have pet insurance to help out with emergency vet visits so that we never have to weigh the cost of treatment with the needs of our dogs.
*UPDATE* Paytons bump is getting smaller. It is not totally gone, but Dr. Lutz put her on one more week's worth of antibiotics to give it some more time to heal on it's own. I will keep you posted.

Peace,
Jamie