"Temporary" Venting Thread IV

[Mari]

*hugs Tess and Earn*
I hope things will get better for you soon, Eärniel! Here, have a frog. *brings out a magic chocolate frog*

Tessar, after saving your GPA (I assume that is your schoolresults?) I order you to take a few days to draw some breath and rest! >_<

[Mari]

Please lock me up somewhere, because I'm afraid I'm going to kill my groupmates if you don't. >_<
I have been assertive though and told my beloved groupmate that no I will not help her and no I do not have a spare brain for her. Well actually, I did not say that last part, but I implied it.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

*Hug Tessar*

It's okay, don't worry too much about the job. You can always find another, if you need too, one that fits you better. And you can save your GPA; you have so much drive towards music, you will overcome!

[Midge]

*groan*

[Tessar]

I just got home from school to find numerous puke stains on the carpet, and a fresh puddle near the kitchen. So I called my mom to find out where she put the cleaning stuff because I couldn't find it...

Apparently her dog (exclusively her dog--mine has not thrown up) is responsible for NINE VOMIT STAINS, plus this new one. She used up all of the cleaning stuff... so I said, "Oh, so where are you?" expecting that she was maybe at the store getting more cleaning stuff.

Do you know what she said?

"Getting a car wash."

I was floored. I couldn't say anything for a minute, then I said, "... you don't think maybe you should take your dog to the vet... since he's vomited ten times since I left for school this morning? You don't think that might be a good idea?"

And do you know what she replied?

"Oh... yeah, maybe I should. I don't know..."

REALLY? You REALLY don't know? Your dog HAS THROWN UP TEN TIMES FOR NO APPARENT REASON. You don't think you should take him to see the vet?!!?!?!?


Oh, and as I wrote this post, she called to ask if she could take the dog to the vet in my car. Cuz if he throws up it would just be horrible if he did it in my dad's car.

..... REALLY?!!?!?!?!? I am in my car twice as long for at least twice as many times (if not more) every single day. NO IT IS NOT OKAY IF MY CAR SMELLS LIKE VOMIT. Plus I know if he does vomit in my dad's car, it will be thoroughly taken care of, instead of "oh it's just Anthony's cheap little car--we'll toss some baking soda on it and wipe it up later."

[Full Metal Aragorn]

Man, your parents sound like real a-wipes...

Venting threads are a good thing. But I'd be banned if I gave full vent to my spleen right now.

[Tessar]

No, my parents are not that bad, but especially lately my mom has lost all focus on what's going on around her like she always does when she's trying to write something. I think she's working on a Writing Workshop for kids or something... plus she's studying for a teacher's certification exam, which I understand is very difficult...

But she has completely stopped paying attention to the things going on around her. And this is just the cherry on the icing of a list of things she's ignored lately... but this one really pisses me off because it's a living creature who's obviously in some misery right now and she just completely blew it off. If she had said she wouldn't, I probably would've taken him myself.

I'm not trying to say that she's heartless or minimize the difficulty of what she's doing... I know the things she's studying are difficult, and I know writing is difficult... since I am quite familiar with both things.... but this is just.... argh!

ALSO because any time -my- dog makes a mess she makes sure to let me know about it, and if my dog throws up once she tells me I need to keep a close eye on her. But her dog throws up nine times, and she goes to get a car wash? Really?

[Tessar]

Twelve times. And the last one was projectile vomiting. Luckily he was outside.


-_-

[Rían]

Poor Tessy and dog! *hates vomity stuff*

[Midge]

Yeah... something about this thread is that it has a way of putting problems into perspective. Sure, my back hurts, and my car is kind of crapped, and I've got mounds of homework. But I do not have puking dogs all around my house. My heart goes out to you, Tess.

*Sends Tess a 'Moot angel of cleaning and sincerely wishes it could pop out of his computer, clean up the mess and cautiously carry the poor dog to the vet*

[Tessar]

I dunno, Midge, your problems aren't exactly anything to sneeze at. Personally I'd take the puking dogs over back pain any day, not to even start on the others. Sorry about all that :-/.


Just as an update, the dog seems a little better now. The vet said that she thinks the problem is just that we (*cough* mostly me) feed him people-food. She said it's okay for dogs when they're younger, but that Lock is getting too old to handle any kind of people food. He may have also caught a little dog 'bug' or something, so she thinks he would've been sick anyways, but we may have made the problem a little worse... me because I give him a little bit of whatever I eat for dinner, and my mom because she gives him his medicine wrapped in a marshmallow. We've been doing it for years, but the vet says he's too old for it now.


He's too skinny, too . We knew he was losing some weight (hence why I gave him some of my food), but even with all of that and everything he eats, he's still lost 4 pounds over the last year... and he's been gradually losing weight before this last year as well. So we're going to start feeding him some fancy canned dog food instead of human food to try to fatten him up a little.

My mom thinks he may only have about 6 months left though :-/. He is kind of going down hill... and 11 is pretty old for a grey hound, especially (so I've been told) if they have multiple racing injuries like Lock does.

I feel terrible for him, too, because he feels hot to the touch, and we can't give him any more water till tomorrow morning. He's really zonked out, and he looks like he's not feeling good... I was petting his head, and he kept making weird motions like his stomach was still upset.



I'm kind of thinking about sleeping downstairs with him... I know it's not exactly like people or anything, but I think he might feel better if he knows someone is there. I just remember feeling really weird when I was sick and I knew no one was around.... I'm being dumb. I know it's just a dog. But still. I think I'll go sleep downstairs with him.

[Midge]

Well, Tess. It's a good thing you are where you are and I am where I am. I am slightly amitaphobic (I think that's how you spell it). I'm phobia'd of vomit. I run. I panic. I stay far far away from puke. I don't watch movies with puke in them, and if they do, I close my eyes and cover my ears. I remember once spending an entire evening in our kitchen pantry with a little book because my brother was sick.

Hence why I think your dog-puking problems suck.

But I figured out the feeling I have. It's like I've sold my soul a hundred times over to different things: school, work, my parents, my friends, my self, the insurance company, the bank... I've got to take out a loan to buy a new car. My old one is fixable, but not worth fixing.

[Mari]

Tess, I'm sure your dog will be happy. Dogs actually do have feelings (According to my biology/psychology book) so wanting to make them feel better surely isn't wasted on them.
How are you yourself doing?

Midge, my sister has that too and she studies Crime Science... I wonder what she'll do when she has to search vomit for clues on a crime scene...

[Tessar]

Well, he's still throwing up today. I let him drink three 'laps' of water, and he puked it back up about ten minutes later. Then when he was done puking, he started wheezing. Every other breath or so was really fast, and really deep like he couldn't control the amount of air he was taking in.

So I just stood next to him and petted him till he stopped wheezing and was ready to lay down again. I kind of have a bad feeling though . I think this might do him in... he's an old dog, and he's been getting more and more frail for the last two years or so... I don't know if he has it in him to bounce back from this.


My mom doesn't want to take him back to the vet, which I understand. They said this time they'd have to take x-rays and do tests and stuff, all of which would be very expensive, plus it's really stressful for Lock to leave the house (even leaving to go for a walk will wipe him out for a whole day... he just doesn't like leaving the house, and he HATES the vet).

If something really is seriously wrong with him... there isn't much we could do. There's always been an understanding in our family that pets are pets, and we wont ever spend a ton of money for them to get surgery or whatever. A few hundred if they need something like shots/antibiotics/some therapy or whatever, but we're not like some friends of ours who paid several thousand for their cat to have surgery. There's a part of me that realizes that's the 'smart' thing to do, but at the same time... I don't know how I feel about it.

I hope he's gonna be okay.

[Earniel]

Aww, that sucks, Tony. *hugs* It's awful seeing a beloved pet lose health. I hope he will be okay and that it doesn't turn out to be serious.

[Rían]

*hugs Tessar and his dog*

Our dog is nine ... I just came across a picture of him 5 years ago, and he's just ... older. He's the best dog we've ever had ... still in great health, but just decidedly slower.

[Full Metal Aragorn]

Tessar, what your dog is doing is exactly what mine did before it died. It might be worse than "Just being old" It may very well be Leptospirosis. It's a disease that attacks both humans and animals and shuts down their liver and kidneys. About 100 dogs have died from it where I am, and the number grows. Ask your vet to test for it on the double, because it is life threatening.

http://www.labbies.com/lepto.htm

That is a pretty good Vet's site that details the disease.

Originally Posted by Vet site

Symptoms of disease. During the first 4-12 days following infection with Leptospira, the dog may experience sudden symptoms of fever (103-105oF), depression, vomiting, loss of appetite, conjunctivitis, and generalized pain. Within 2 days of the onset of these primary symptoms, body temperature may drop suddenly and there may be a noticeable increase in thirst.

A definite change in the color of the dog's urine and/or jaundice (icterus) is often noticed and may be the only indication of disease. Color intensity of the urine may vary from lemon to deep orange. Additionally, frequent urination and subsequent dehydration (uremia) are consistent with invasion of the kidney tubule cells by the Leptospira organism and usually present within a few days of the primary symptoms.

In advanced cases of infection, profound depression, difficulty breathing, muscular tremors, bloody vomitus and feces are often observed as the infection progresses to include the liver, gastrointestinal system and other organs. Course and severity of the disease is often dependent upon the serovar responsible for the infection. Serovars associated with liver infection and symptoms of urine discoloration and/or jaundice (icterus), elevation of liver enzymes, and gastrointestinal symptoms include L. icterohaemorrhagiae and grippotyphosa. The serovar grippotyphosa is also associated with symptoms of renal failure as is the serovar pomona.

It may appear to go away, but it's just going into dormancy, when it comes back there is no treating it and it is a very painful killer. What is worse is that it jumps to humans too, and we've had a few cases of that here too. When my dog died my vet put me on some heavy duty antibiotics. Three of the vets I took my dog to were f@cking morons and told me that my dog had "a cough", "a sore throat", and "a bit of a cold".

Then I finally took the poor lad to an emergency vet and they tested him positive for Leptospirosis. It was too late for him, and he died sommat miserable, but I was put on antibiotics just in time because I had contracted it from him after caring for him. With Antibiotics its easy tocure, but you have to jump on it and fast.

[Tessar]

I don't think that's what it is, but thank you for the warning. He perks up when my mom's around, and he seems calm when she's near him. He's thirsty and hungry, just that he can't seem to keep anything down. He seems interested when he sees us eating, but he doesn't have the energy now to get up and come beg.

There hasn't been any blood in the vomit, either... so I think we're in the clear for that one, but thank you again for the warning.

[Full Metal Aragorn]

Keep an eye on him. At first my dog didn't exhibit that either. But your welcome for the warning I guess. I sure hope it isn't Lep.

[Tessar]

I'll be surprised if he makes it at this point. I gave him two teaspoonfulls of cooked rice, and a thumbnail sized piece of chicken, with the hope of giving him another teaspoonfull of rice thirty minutes later... supposedly those should've helped calm his system down a little, but he puked it all back up within 20 minutes. He hasn't had any food stay in his system for about 39 hours now, and the water doesn't fare any better.


It's just kind of horrible because I know he's absolutely starving, because of how he perked up when he ate the rice and stuff. I've had this... hunger phobia... since I was little. I don't know what triggered it, and it's not for myself--but I can't stand the idea of someone else being hungry and not being able to get food.

I hope he either gets better or that this ends quickly, because I don't want him to have to suffer any more.

I guess I'll sleep on the couch again tonight. If he does die tonight, I don't want him to be totally alone when it happens.