Dances with DS

So I relook my previous post on bugs in chicken with new eyes now!

Was it a weird type of premonition of some kind perhaps?  Not quite the same as what was to transpire - but  still in some ways connected.

Yesterday I took my virus laden body ( I am still quite ill with this flu) into the garden as I thought flu or not I could not waste the beautiful sunshine apon us. I had a plant that needed relocating. I noticed that Ruby my bullterrier had already dug me a nice big hole in the flowerbed - alas not in the perfect place.  Then I noticed her chomping on something disgusting.  I pulled a mouldy goodness knows what out of her reluctant mouth. I thought then that it looked like the stuff food poisoning was made of.  I wondered if she had buried it at some time and had dug it out of the hole. A few moments later I retrieved an old white bone from Zenni as well.

I thought nothing further of it.  Later in the afternoon I was again outside with my dogs when I noticed Ruwbs get very excited. She hunts small flying bugs like no other dog I have had - makes me laugh as she always does this with a soft toy in her mouth, as if for security against the flying invaders. A little later I glanced   her way again. I noticed her leg tremoring. I thought her obsession was now getting over the top. I called her over to me and realised something was badly wrong. Her eyes were erratic - they moved from side  to side with no co ordination. Her tremors were increasing by the minute.

No one else was at home. Pete was in Holland. My son Luke at work and my youngest had just gone to the shops. I phoned the vet said I had an emergency and was on my way. I grabbed Ruby and a blanket and rushed to my car. To my distress the battery was absolutely flat. Can you believe it!  I spiralled into an all time panic.  I ran to my lovely neighbours and they got ready to take us to the vet. Just then my youngest arrived and he held Ruby in the back of the car.  By then she was frothing at her mouth and vomiting profusely.

It seemed an age of negotiating traffic and I was beside myself really. I thought it might have been the mank thing she had dug up, but several years ago I lost my beautiful pup, Petal to A Vasorum. It looked similar. Not the same - but it was clearly neurological whatever it was. I thought it impossible that Vasorum could come back to haunt us. We are fastidious about deworming our dogs with the correct drug - every month. We NEVER miss it. It is logged in and we also give the dogs panacur as an additional precaution every 3 months in the vasorum season. As it was spring & the slugs and frogs are coming out - we had in fact just given Ruwbs panacur two weeks ago. I could not believe it. Again for the hundreth time I saw my Petal in her final awful hours only this time I also saw my beautiful Ruby slipping further and further into a catastrophic physical mayhem.

Our vet began work on her immediately. He said he thought it was not likely vasorum - more likely connected to the dug up debris. Her situation was very serious. They began her on a drip & charcoal also valium to try to stop the ever increasing tremors and hyperactive brain activity.  By this time I am afraid I had lost the plot and I was in tears. I rushed outside and threw up.   My nose began to bleed quite profusely into the miserable bargain.  I think I must have looked an awful sight.  My son was concerned but also slightly embarressed by his emotional mother,  but the staff were so kind and understanding.

I left my sweet little bullie in the vets for the night but I could not sleep for thinking about her.  We gave Zenni charcoal just in case but thankfully he seemed fine. Through the long long night I read paper on paper on mycotoxins through the night and only scared myself even more.

Although most dogs do survive many don’t. Some are left with permanent tremors and neuro effects. I thought - even if my bright spark came back to me with brain damage I could face that. I would work with it. I just wanted her alive. It was a terrible night.

This morning the vet called. Good news!  Ruby had been extremely ill through the night but they had seen slow improvement starting around 4 am. She was still ill but out of the woods. She was shaking but the vet felt this was just her usual anxious behaviour - she does this on any visit to the vets.    He felt because of this it would be best to fetch her at midday & settle her into her own routine at home.

I can’t tell you how relieved I was!  

We collected her at midday. She was so excited that I got afraid she might relapse.  She is still not well - very weak. Her back leg still has a worrying kind of semi-paralysis to it. I have been rubbing it gently today to try to bring feeling back into it.  The good thing is that she has no neuro-symptoms and is ravenously hungry. I feed her small bits of bland food every hour or so. We sit on the sofa a lot, her little nose in the crook of my neck. Resting together.  I am breathing her into my very body with relief.

I am soooo exhausted. My rat lab efforts for the DS & WLS  research started today to top it all, and of course yesterday in the crisis I lost all my will to eat anything!  I had to really force myself to kind of resemble a normal eating day for me - it was not easy as I felt very nauseous too. I just am totally crap at dealing with high stress situations.  Still - I am determined to go through with it - flu, doggie crisis - whatever else hits me!  I really want to find out what makes this DS tick.  I am interested in the metabolic possibilities - I have always felt with my DS that it goes further than just the malabsorption.  I duly collected my samples in the am!  Today I have done my best to slot myself back into my usual eating patterns in the interests of science. Although I ate cold chicken for breakfast, something not usual for me!  Then later I had a yogurt. Lunch was a tin of tuna and bean salad. Dinner - chicken curry, beans and a little rice. Not really enough - looking at it now. Later I will eat a banana and some nuts and drink a big milky drink.

Still - let me say despite the exhaustion, I had a wonderful day today. To have my Ruby back in her own home has been fantastic. What is so sweet is that her tail has not stopped wagging.  Pete arrived in the morning quite grey with fear I think, poor man. I had contacted him last night and he too had a dreadful night. It was great to be able to tell him that our girlie had made it!

Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that a piece of mouldy food could be so incredibly dangerous. I think the fact that it had been dug up might have made it more so than usual as mycotoxins are also found in compost and at the begining of winter I duly composted all the flowerbeds.

I hope with all my heart that this is the last of dog crises in my life FOREVER!

My world could get paranoid - A Vasorum everywhere, even the sight of a slug gives me the heebeejeebs..then thinking about all those yuccky bugs in supermarket chicken & now mycotoxins…

I was in marks & sparks just now & caught myself deliberating about buying a huge bottle of germ killing hand sanitiser, but then I thought a cherry compote yogurt might be a much nicer idea ….here’s to the good bacteria in life!