Praying my dog doesn't die...

The Dog Saga: How my dog's stupid mistake nearly (and still may) led to her death.

This week has really tested my faith, patience, love for my dog, and desire to be a pet owner.

Wednesday
We come home from a week long vacation in Mexico. My sister-in-law/house&dog-sitter informs us Jasmine, our not even two year old ginger lab, has thrown up four times and skipped dinner Tuesday night and breakfast this morning. Throwing up is typical, she eats a lot of stupid things including: whole tomatoes, birds, beer cans, change, socks, books, towels, and clay pots. But the eating is very uncharacteristic. Jasmine LOVES her some food.

So we take her to Banfield inside of Petsmart. They take X-rays and give her a rectal.

"There's enlarged areas of the intestines but we can't tell from what."

And they send us home with wet food with a return date of Saturday. $75.


Saturday
Jasmine has eaten all of the wet food and enjoyed it. Unfortunately, she's dropped four pounds in one week and she shakes when she breathes. Clearly, she's uncomfortable.

Back at Banfield, they give her another rectal and declare her as seemingly healthy. They refer us to a place that does ultrasounds, suggesting this as the next step. $75 more. We take her to Mueller Pet Hospital instead.

They go over the X-rays and want to keep her overnight, install an IV to pump her with fluids to see if they can flush this out. Reluctantly, I agree to leave my now scared, shaking, not-eating, skinny as a rail baby with strangers all alone overnight. $550.


Sunday
I call the vet to check on Jazz.

"She's going to require another night and the ultrasound is a go. Fluids didn't work. And she has a yeast infection in her ear too." $1160.


Monday
"The ultrasound revealed a large towel bunched up in her intestines. We have to perform surgery to remove immediately." $2800.

"Surgery was successful. We removed the towel. Unfortunately, we had to also remove one foot of her intestine because it was [that f-ed up]. It's common, we've done it hundreds of times and it rarely leaks. And we pressure tested Jasmine's, and it didn't leak. But watch her carefully the next week because if it leaks, she dies. But if she makes it through next Monday, she'll live."

"Oh. AND, she wasn't born with a right kidney."

...all because she ate a towel.

Super.