As I said in my last post, Saturday was Steve’s 2 year Ampuversary, and Jay and I were on a mini vacation for the weekend.
Jay took Friday off to leave for the Jersey shore early. He slept in a little, but was still awake earlier than I was (one of the perks of being a dog walker is the late morning start). I got up and wasn’t one foot out of the bedroom when he told me to watch where I stepped because someone had puked everywhere. He wasn’t kidding. It was EVERYWHERE! Part of me cursed him for not cleaning it up, part of me was happy he had left it so I could see what it consisted of and if it was something to be concerned about. Oh man, was it something to be concerned about!! I must have cleaned up 20something piles of puke. I traced it all back to Steve because she was the most lethargic and ….well….she had puke in her beard. I felt her belly for hard stool and didn’t feel anything, so I hoped it was just a case of the kitty pukes. I fed everyone and let her eat breakfast next to me. She ate a little then called it quits which I blamed on her recent pukes. I went to work and hoped that Jay would keep me posted before he left.
Jay texted me around noon that Steve was still puking. CRAP! I was able to swing by home an hour later and found she had puked up breakfast. Double CRAP! I had been fearing it all day. All signs pointed to constipated. I felt her belly again and still didn’t feel anything. I finished my day and kept trying to talk myself out of Steve being constipated, but when I finished and got home I took another feel – a good feel – and there it was. Triple CRAP! I called the vet. They could see me in an hour. Instead of dinner and a shower before packing and driving down the shore, I shoved half a sandwich in my face and packed myself, Jay, and Steve for weekends away (with the intention of Steve staying the weekend at the vet for monitoring).
The vet tech that started our appointment was nice, also a Tripawd owner, but was skeptical. She thought I was probably just looking for hard stool in Steve’s belly and felt something else. I told her that was fine and if Steve just needed a quick Cerenia shot, I would be totally ok with that!! The doctor – one we’ve never seen before – felt the same way. She brought in a different tech to restrain Steve for the feel. This tech, Laura, knew me and laughed about how the tech who took Steve’s vitals at her annual appointment on Monday never noticed that she only had 3 legs. Laura assured her that she knew Steve, has seen plenty of pictures on Facebook, and that Steve definitely only has 3 legs!! Anyways, the doctor felt hard stool. Bummer. Steve was spending the weekend and her ampuversary in the hospital getting enemas. The good news was that they were not going to charge me for hospitalization, just for medical boarding. Phew!!
So Steve made it almost a year and a half with no poop troubles. The doctor wasn’t entirely surprised. She wants to continue with the laxative/wet food plan, and switch Steve’s dry food to a high fiber prescription diet. I’m hoping it doesn’t dig too much into my pockets because I was going to change Yorrick to a rabbit diet. Steve’s diet is more important, though, so Yorrick can wait!
So….Happy Ampuversary Steve!! Sorta…
Testing……..