This weekend Elayna, #2, Mati, and I went to Tullahoma to visit with family. The night we got there Mati started acting weird and really antisocial. She went into our bedroom and didn't come out except to eat and potty. And she stopped doing both by Saturday night. I thought maybe three small rowdy children and four super psycho crazy dogs were just too much for her and let her have her space. (Didn't make much sense because she can be the hyper-est, most hyper crazy of them all, but whatever.) We got home Sunday and she went into our room and did the same, absolutely nothing; and she was really weak. I was going to give her another day to adjust to being home.
She didn't even boof or bark to alert me that Renee had stopped by. As soon as she saw her Renee told me to take her to the vet. She knew Mati was worse off than I had assumed. Sure enough. When we got there, the vet took her temp and exclaimed at how high it was. Apparently at 105 degrees, it's a matter of life or death. She was immediately admitted and given shots and fluids to help bring down the fever. Poor girl tried to follow me out of the vet's office. I had to tell her to stay as she was struggling to get off the x-ray table. Her films, blood work, and other numbers all came back normal. None of the office vets could diagnose why she had such a high fever. Her spline was enlarged and she was infested with bacteria, but that's to be assumed with a dog that sick. They kept her overnight and continued to give her fluids.
Leaving her was awful. I bawled the whole way home. (It doesn't help that I'm already too emotional thanks to baby #2 and all the hormones that come with pregnancy.) I didn't realize just how attached I was to this dog until I had to spend the night without her. It took me over two hours to fall asleep and then I woke to every tiny little sound I heard. Even woke up thirty minutes before my alarm went off this morning. So I laid in bed for nearly an hour, waiting for the vet's office to open so I could call and check on her. They said she looked better, was eating, and even perked up some. They also said we could stop by that morning to visit.
When Elayna & I first saw her, Mati looked like her normal crazy self. Super excited to see us. She wasn't quite 100% but she was tons better than how we left her the day before. We took her outside and chilled for about 45 minutes. Mati chewed on her toy we brought, EV ate cheerios. Then EV "walked" Mati around the grassy area. Mati even acted like her guard dog self when others would venture into our space. The vet said we could stop by later that afternoon to see if her fever had gone down and if it had then we would be taking her home.
So she's home! She's still got a fever of over 103, but taking meds and relaxing to keep it down. Keep your fingers crossed that she continues to improve. We still don't know what made her so sick so fast and sure don't want her to get that bad again. Her are some pics of the visit we had with her today.
***okay, so the pics aren't uploading. I'll try to add them later.***
UPDATE: Tonight Mati's temp is down to 102.3, which is almost normal. She's eating and drinking and pottying. (It seems to be that when one has children, two legged or four, potty appears in daily discussion. Sorry.) I'm so excited that she's on the mend. Of course it's due to meds. And we still don't know what caused the fever. As we were discussing treatment with the vet at discharge, she stated that there's any number of things that could've happened and no real way to figure it out. Mati could've gotten into something or she could just have a bug, much like humans with the 24hr flu. Who knows. I'm just happy she's better and continuing to improve. Let's hope it sticks. I'll get those pics up as soon as possible.
