Our puppy Magic almost died. He's still not completely out of danger.
He ate a sock.
Yeah, I thought it was kind of funny, too. Except the almost dying part.
Magic is a 6 month old Saint Bernard puppy. 85 pounds, tall enough for me to pet with out leaning over. He loves everyone.
He has a mischievous spirit. When he's doing something bad, he gets this glint in his eye. It's playful, and he knows he's doing something he shouldn't, but he just can't help himself.
Actually, Magic ate 5 socks.
# 1 Fell out of the dryer while I was transferring clean clothes to the dresser in the bedroom to be folded. I saw him with it, and although I NEVER do trades, I held up a cookie. "Wanna Cookie?" I asked. Magic's second favorite words. (The first being, "Are you hungry?")
In stead of dropping the inedible sock for the yummy cookie, he swallowed the sock. That sock came, ah, out, just fine. I found it two days later.
#2 & #3 I have no idea where he got them. We have a lot of theories, the Saint and I. Maybe from the top of the dresser. Although I push the clothes back from the edge. Several months ago three nice shirts, and three crappy shirts and two pairs of underwear received some big holes because they were too close to the edge. They came through fine.
#4 got thrown up last Friday morning. Magic didn't eat. This was a big, big deal.
After him being lethargic and not eating, and puking, I called the Saint at work and said, "He needs to go to the vet now."
Our vet took x-rays. He saw something, but couldn't tell what it was. Said if Magic started throwing up again to bring him back, they were there until 6. We went home. Magic not feeling good. Two hours later he started getting sick again. We rushed him to the emergency vet. They said, "I think there's a sock in there." CRAP.
They tried to re-hydrate and hoped it would move along on it's own. It didn't. So at 4:30 am they called us and told us they were going to operate. They do this all the time at this practice. They felt it would be routine, so they neutered him, and stapled his stomach so he won't torsion.
Since he is a lighting-fast eater, was due to be neutered, and they would already be mucking around in there we told them to go for it.
Magic came through the surgery fine. Sock removed, only a small incision in the intestine. A huge one along his poor tummy, though. Neutered. The vet said only a couple more inches and the sock would have been on his way. All was well. He should be fine.
But he wasn't fine. He still wouldn't eat. He was listless, draggy, dopey. We went and saw him after work on Saturday, and he was not our bouncy Magic. We were worried. Then the vet called us Sunday morning and asked us to come in, to see if we could get him to eat. No luck. Sunday night we went back, and the vet was concerned about some white blood cells. No apparent infection. But he was still not eating. Running from both ends.
Monday, the radiologist took an ultrasound, and they gave us a choice. Things in there might be dicey. The could give him 5 days or so to see if he pulled out of it, or go back in for a look around, to make sure everything was fine. He had perked up, but still wasn't eating. The second time in ended up with the surgeon finding adhesions all through his intestines, removing a foot of the intestine where the sock had been. His chances were not great. He came through the surgery okay, but with the infection, resection, and it being the second surgery - it was not looking very promising. The surgery had taken three hours. On a positive note - his vital signs had stayed stable the whole time.
After getting the news I cried all night long. The Saint had to take Nemo with him when he went to get dinner because I was freaking him out.
Tuesday morning I was afraid to call and find out what was happening with my poor dog. I couldn't bear any more bad news. The vet tech came on and said, "He's eating like crazy."
From there the news got better. He perked up. Kept eating. No throwing up. We went to see him Tuesday, and he was a new dog. Still groggy from the surgery, but much perkier than the same time after his first surgery.
Wednesday morning the vet said if he kept improving he could go home. He was perky. They said he was a wiggle worm who kept trying to lick them.
When we went to get him he was back to Magic. Loving everyone, and ready to go home. When we got there he promptly stole three pieces of forbidden kibble. He's on a high nutrition soft food for now, and more pills than the Saint and me put together. But - he's looking good.
If he makes it to Saturday night without throwing up, having the runs, or not eating he should be okay.
You might be thinking to yourselves, do they just strew socks around? No. Pretty much everything in our house is puppy proofed. We don't leave tempting stuff laying around where he has access. Shoes are put away when they are taken off. Clothes go in the hamper. Small tempting items are put on higher counters. Doors are kept shut to those really fine places like...bathrooms and the back bedrooms.
We also train him NOT to chew up our stuff, take away the bad thing, "MINE!" and give him a toy. However, he is a puppy. Like a kid, everything goes in his mouth. If it tastes not bad, he eats it. We watch him closely, and we try to keep things that will hurt him in safe places, but we can't watch him every second.
Is there a moral to this story? Not really. Puppies will be puppies.
PS - 3/30/07 Magic is fine now. Socks are on lock down though. He had to take three weeks of antibiotics, and be on special food when he first came home. I took three days off to make sure things didn't go bad. It was very scary. Does he still eat things he shouldn't? Yes. Two weeks after he came home he ate the handle off his new toy box. And the phone line. But he's fine. Hopefully he's at the end of this stage of puppyhood!
