For some, dogs are more important than people and that’s quite alright. If you’ve never had a dog in your life you are missing out on unconditional love that I believe everyone should have the chance to experience. They don’t look at you differently when you wear mismatched clothes, gain too much weight, eat weird foods, say something silly, or make a mistake. They look at you the same all the time; with an abundance of love.
Our dog, Thelma, gave us quite the scare on Monday morning.
When I came downstairs at 7 to get ready for the day and take the boys to school, I found Thelma in her crate lying in a pool of vomit and urine. She was panting, crying, and looked so downtrodden.
I immediately opened the door and encouraged her to come out and go for a walk. She wanted no parts of it.
I thought maybe it was because she would have to walk through the mess. I cleaned it up thoroughly and encouraged her to stand up. She didn’t. She tried, but she couldn’t.
I immediately thought she hurt one or both of her rear legs and vomited because the pain was unbearable overnight.
I informed Nicole via text that something was wrong with our Thelma girl. She called and said she was coming home from school.
Unfortunately, the boys were still home. My parents had been at the house all weekend and stayed after the Super Bowl, so luckily they were still here to try and distract Tony and Enzo.
I dragged the crate with Thelma in it from the room where she sleeps (my office) out through the kitchen, and down the steps into our family room close to the back door.
She still would not stand up or even crawl out of her crate.
When Nicole returned home the boys left for school with my parents. Together, we lifted the crate with our big girl in it and put it in the back of my truck.
Our initial idea was to drive Thelma out to her regular vet, which is in Tabernacle, so we could arrive as they opened.
We made it maybe half a mile before we decided to go to Northstar Vet Animal Hospital in Maple Shade. Why the switch? Thelma was SCREAMING as we drove. I thought the bumps in the road were hurting her.
Upon arrival at Northstar a tech came out and loaded Thelma on a gurney and immediately took her into triage for a doctor to evaluate her.
We learned yesterday that dogs can suffer from vertigo. We were told that Thelma suffered an idiopathic vestibular episode. It affects her balance. It explains why she vomited in her crate, why she was crying so loudly in the car (motion sickness), and why she could not stand up when I found her.
She stayed overnight at the hospital and was cared for by some wonderfully amazing people. I picked her up today around Noon and brought her home. She is markedly improved compared to Monday morning at 7 to now, but still has a long way to go.
It takes up to 72 hours to recover from the worst of the symptoms and up to three weeks to really regain balance after an episode. She ate dinner this afternoon, drank a bowl of water, and is catching up on her rest.
To say this was a stressful, upsetting, trying event is an understatement. What made it worse was that it happened while the boys were home. They are still struggling with the loss of Phoebe from less than three years ago and they immediately began worrying they were losing another family member.
Enzo was in tears and my parents said the boys were completely silent on the ride to school Monday morning. We surprised the boys this afternoon by not telling them Thelma had come home and they were so happy to see her when they walked through the door.
Enzo again broke down, but this time it was happy tears.
Dogs really are man’s best friend. But, they are also family. When family hurts. You hurt. Our Thelma was hurting. We were hurting. The boys were hurting. Right now we are whole again.
I don’t know if Thelma is out of the woods just yet. We need to hope and pray for recovery over the next few weeks or else we could be looking at possible issues with her brain, which means an MRI and extensive treatment. The boys don’t know this and we will have to cross that bridge when we come to it.
Right now, Thelma is home. She is relaxing. She is back where she belongs.
