chip off the ol' battery of lab tests...

[mylittleredgirl]

MY DOG HAS MONO.

Okay, probably not mono exactly. So all along everyone has been telling me I'm "too hard" on the dog because I've been worrying that she seems to sleep all the time and only has bursts of energy for about one minute at a time.

So today was Tessie's first vet visit, and everyone at the vet's office went to Def Con 3 Def Con 1.5 because she's showing all the signs of something mysterious being omgwrong, but no one knows what, since it's probably something Chinese that doesn't turn up too often in Oregon. Personally, I recognize all those symptoms. Glands crazy swollen! High fever! Sleeps all the time! No appetite! DOG HAS THE SACHI DISEASE.

So, yeah, my dog has some crazy Chinese mono. They're running a lot of very expensive lab tests for strange Chinese blood parasites -- expensive because they really never show up in Oregon, and the vets dragged out a whole bunch of reference texts while we were there today -- so I'm back in credit card debt again. :( Which is adding to my stress, um, more than a bit. *money flailing* I saved up a whole lot of money for unusual doggie expenses and now it's gone, and they haven't even treated her yet for whatever they might find.

At least our new vet is totally awesome. This is the same vet hospital we take our rats to -- it's nearby and they treat exotics -- but it's not the same vet (our rat guy? ROCKS OMG and he is forever to be our rat vet, even though we don't know his name and so have to ask for him as "the guy with the ponytail and glasses who ROCKS"). This woman was new, and did some of her vet internship abroad, so she's familiar with dogs like Tessie and she's really nice and very knowledgeable and spent a lot of time with us. <3 <3 <3 to her.

In more Dog Mono Fun, I now have to take her temperature to keep an eye on it. Hi, doggie, since we're just starting the process of trying to get you to trust me and trust people in general, I think the next logical step is for me to stick things up your behind once a day.

And the dog puked up weird foamy stuff on my comforter this morning, which is too big to fit in my washing machine. WOE. (And while it's not funny that the dog is sick, poor thing, it's kind of ridiculous how she unerringly demanded to throw up in the most comfortable place wherever she was. I dragged her outside hoping she would throw up on concrete that I could clean up more easily, and puked on our welcome mat instead. Stay classy.)

In other Sachi's Crazy Pets news, last night the national news segment of our local Oregon evening news did a story on a woman in Kentucky with 32 pet rats.

... which, for those keeping track, is exactly 5 more pet rats than we currently have. National news. At least it was a human interest story, and not "... charges of animal hoarding are pending and the suspect has been taken in for psychiatric evaluation."

Comments

[suzvoy.livejournal.com]

:( :(

[mylittleredgirl.livejournal.com]

:( !!!!

[mysticalweather.livejournal.com]

Poor puppy!!!!!

*sends her (and you) hugs*

So...you getting 6 more rats to beat Kentucky lady's record? Hehehe!! ;)

~Misty

[mylittleredgirl.livejournal.com]

LOL. No! Ehm, we didn't even think of that at all. Not even a little bit.

[cnidarian.livejournal.com]

How. Do you manage it.
*mind boggles*

Poor doggie :(

[mylittleredgirl.livejournal.com]

Do I manage the eight billion rats, you mean?

I think it has less to do with "strength of character" and more to do with "frailty of brain," but that could be just me.

[cnidarian.livejournal.com]

I meant more how do you manage to get ze crazy wisdom teeth of evil, and ze dog with mono AND have eight billion rats. Heh :p

[mylittleredgirl.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure. It might be a curse.

[joyfulfeather.livejournal.com]

Poor doggie! :( Hopefully it is something that happens All The Time in China, and so is easily curable once they find out what it is.

*hugs*

[mylittleredgirl.livejournal.com]

I really hope so. Unless I get a raise, I can't afford a longterm problem right now. Eeeep!

[besyd.livejournal.com]

First, check your contract with the rescue group. If they passed along an issue they should have caught, there might be some financial recourse.

Also, up-chucking the mega-foam, if yellow, especially in the morning, can indicate "empty tummy syndrome". Hailey was *very* prone to this as a baby. Had to feed her four times a day until she was a year or so and then three times until not too long ago. And keep cookies at bedside so I could get something into her as soon as our eyes opened in the morning. (If I relaxed my diligence, she was often an unexpected 4am "alarm".) She still reverts once in a while, and I just get back in the habit of early morning snack. But the multiple feeding times and a late night snack can really help.

And check out the new doggie-ear thermometers. Expensive, but perhaps less stressful (and more "pleasant") than the other kind. I saw one in Petsmart for the first time the other day. I'll probably get one in the near future.

{{{Hugs}}} to you both!

[redbeard.livejournal.com]

*resists urge to make bad import from china joke*

But, yeah, ditto - you assumed you were adopting a healthy dog from the rescue agency - shots, quarintine (they have to do that if they're coming from overseas) and all. This should not be your problem, and you should contact the agency ASAP. If you were looking for mono!Dog, well, that would be your responsibility. But I'm guessing that if you saw that particular item listed on a doggy's history, you would not have taken that on.

[spacefiend.livejournal.com]

Not to sound like a broken record, but I agree with all of the above. I know in the rescue group my family and I work with, they routinely waive the adoption fee for special-needs dogs, and all medical care is done before the dog is permanently placed. (Two of our three rescue goldens were heartworm-positive when they came in, and Rescue took care of all their medical care.) So they should do something to help, at least.

But poor doggie! I hope she gets better soon!

[mylittleredgirl.livejournal.com]

Totally going to get one of those ear thermometers! Because the anal probing of the dog is not working at. all., I'm afraid. She's a squirmy little devil.

[surferartchick.livejournal.com]

you need to have her checked for parvo. If she starts to have diarea it's almost to late. Even if she's been vacinated they can still get it. I've had three dogs go through it and they all sounded much like you've described.

*not a doctor though.

[mylittleredgirl.livejournal.com]

Oh noes! She is being blood-tested for absolutely everything, so hopefully that's on their list. I'll ask when they give me the results.

She hasn't had any diarrhea yet, thank God, since she's still not so much with the housetraining...

[meg-tdj.livejournal.com]

Dude, that's just... uncanny. Poor puppy! *sends hugs and love*

[mylittleredgirl.livejournal.com]

I KNOW! Poor puppy. :( She's had much more energy the past day and a half, so maybe the antibiotics have already started to work?

[elvinborn.livejournal.com]

dude, I thought at least half the point of the fee you pay rescue agencies and such is to cover the part where your dog was supposed to be tested for everything and declared healthy.

meanwhile, yay for a good vet that you like and that takes time with you and your pet! Good vets like that are hard to find.

here's hoping they figure out that it's something simple to deal with.

[mylittleredgirl.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I'm going to wait to see what's wrong before contacting the rescue -- it's possible it's something they never would have checked at quarrantine. *sigh*

[georgierae.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

well, that sucks :(

poor puppy

[mylittleredgirl.livejournal.com]

Awww, thanks. *hugs*

And I like your icon.

[georgierae.livejournal.com]

*hugs back*

and thanks! (the world needs more icons of those two. Actually, *i* need more icons of those two...)

[anr]

*hugs*