Busy Days

So the days are busy... first, helping Owen recover from surgery and second, moving back to Toronto into the house! Fortunately Andrew & his mom did a whole bunch of cleaning/organizing the weekend before I arrived and then my mom came for the week to help get settled and clean. Lexie was here with mom too so hopefully that helped Owen get adjusted to his new home.

Owen's biopsy results showed no indication of IBD and no indication of an immunity problem - yaye! The cause of his illness was either due to a rare parasite or triggered by a food sensitivity... I figure it is probably due to the latter as he has had food issues ever since I got him 3 years ago. He's doing very well though now and eating Medi Cal Gastro canned food and it seems to be agreeing with him so far - let's hope that continues. Tomorrow he goes back to Guelph to get his staples removed which will be so nice as the e-collar is getting so annoying! (He sure does get a lot of attention in it though during walks. lol) Here we are as mom and Lexie were leaving:

So we are 37 weeks along and full term now (holy cow). The baby is still breech so I have a c-section scheduled. I'm completely exhausted all the time and my feet constantly hurt which makes dog walks not quite as enjoyable/doable so I am looking forward to eventually getting back to myself again.

I've finished The Constant Princesss and loved it and am ready to move to the next book. It took me a little longer than usual to finish as Kim dropped off a whole bag of used magazines that kept me occupied for quite a while! I'm ready for the next Phillipa Gregory book but before that I am reading Mommywood and of course, am loving it too - love the Tori Spelling always. Thanks for the book borrow Mandy!

May Birthday Kids

Happy Birthday to Mom & Owen today and Alayna on Sunday! Owen turns 3 today. Alayna turns 2.

Home Sweet Home

Owen is home in Glencoe tonight after 4 days in Guelph... he's very out of it and on lots of meds but he's home at last. Lexie was so excited to see him that she was jumping in excitement... 12 year old sore Lexie was jumping - crazy! Biopsies still not in but we're just so happy he's home.

My Poor Baby Owen

This is going to be a long one...

Sunday morning Owen woke me up at 6.30am wanting to go outside... he *never* does this and will sleep in until 11am if I want to. Downstairs I found runny black bloody liquidy diarrhea/stool and then he threw up with blood in it. He was having similar issues the day before only with no blood. I immediately call the emergency vet in Guelph (as I have had poor luck with the vets around here) and we drove the 2 hours to get him looked at and treated.

After blood work showed high white and red blood cells + they said he was very dehydrated, they started him on IV + antibiotics in the hopes that he had a "spring bacteria" of some sort. He remained on that overnight but this morning we was still vomiting blood. So x-rays were next and they were not good:

-the small intestine is about the size of your pinky finger
-Owen had 2-3 areas that are 2-3x the size... huge gas pockets
-because of the gas pockets you get hairpin turns (like when you fold a balloon and there is the folded area that is pinched) - no one/no animal should have any and he has about 5 of them (extremely abnormal - shouldn't have any)
-likely a foreign body but couldn't see it on an xray (but very strong suspicion)
suspecting potentially a shoe lace (linear foreign body) is stuck somewhere in the intestine.. the problem is that it doesn't just get stuck in 1 place like a piece of spaghetti.. it breaks up
-Major Risk: if the linear foeign body has penetrated the intestine, this is bad bad bad (this happened to another dog apparently - it was older though and they had to euthanize it)
-Owen has been starting to play bow with them (leaning down and stretching like they do when they want to play and he does it before walks) - apparently this is an indicator of pain in the upper abdomen
-Linear foreign body: If this is the cause, it is tricky b/c it is not like a toy or something where they just pinpoint it and go in and get it.... with a linear foreign body, they have to go along the entire small intestine
-Sum Story: his GI tract is very f*cked up and they're not sure what exactly is causing it.... worst case scenario... they find no foreign body but are able to do biopsies while they're in there

So I worried and worried all afternoon and evening that he had a perforated intestine. They did the emergency surgery on him tonight (took over 2 hours) instead of waiting because his x-rays looked a lot like there was a foreign body in there .... so I waaaaaited to hear all night.

Good News: They found no foreign object. (Apparently they checked it over 3x to be sure.) They took 4 samples to biopsy: 1. stomach 2. small intestine (took 2 samples) 3. liver. His kidneys, liver and gall bladder look okay.

Next steps: 1. expand Owen's antibiotics 2. no more food for 18-24 hrs (he hasn't been on food for 2 days already) & then start feeding him after 3. wait for biopsies to come back (earliest a couple of days but for sure before the end of the week) to hopefully find out what he has 4. recovery time is usually 36 hours minimum. The vet is very confident that Owen is going to 'make it' and be okay but I'm still very worried about him.

This is most likely related to his issues last year where he was throwing up after every meal and then was diagnosed with h pylori. After being treated, it seemed to work but Owen has continually had gastrointestinal problems on and off so there is definitely something more wrong with him so hopefully the biopsies tell the story. Last year I thought he had IBD - Inflammatory Bowel Disease but was told it was more serious than what he had.... the surgeon tonight said it is a definite possibility.

The surgeon vet said he is doing well and is hopeful he'll recover and 'make it' but there are about a dozen different diseases/conditions that are being considered by the vet right now. Poor O.