See, I made a funny reference to the Serial Podcast in the title of this blog! Trying to keep it lighthearted in the midst of some horrific happenings going on at my house.
I have been considering writing a book blog because I'm nerdy, but the events of the last few days and the questions that have arisen around it, I figured that I would let y'all in on the happenings with details, and spare those on facebook who don't want to read about it.
So, Jillie is really sick. What she has or what is wrong with her is yet to be determined, but I'll get to that later. I'll tell a little background. If pee or poop, bothers you, SORRY, turn away now... Also, if rambling bothers you, well, you're in for a treat.
January 7
Morning - Jillie was super happy dog, doing her little stretches and wagging her tail and all set on going outside to go potty. It was a pretty cold morning, but I went back inside for about 15 minutes to finish getting ready, and then went back out to get her. When I opened the door, she was standing in the middle of the backyard just staring at me, and I could see she was shaking. It was a cold morning, so I ushered her in, where she was walking pretty slow. I know she's dramatic, so I blew it off. I did notice her eyes watering VERY bad, but I thought it was from the wind. I leave her 4 little rawhide treats when I go to work, and I noticed that she bypassed them and went straight to her bed and laid down. We all don't feel good sometimes, and I just credited it to the cold weather and maybe she was kind of tired. I left for work.
Evening - When I got home from work, she didn't greet me at the door. I knew then that she REALLY didn't feel good. Walking through my house, I noticed 2 vomit puddles in my living room, and a very small pee spot in my bedroom. She has NEVER peed in the house. She was cuddled up in my bed, and I noticed again that her eyes were runny. We've all had colds, I just let it go. I finally got her off the bed and took her outside, where she went number 1 and number 2, but it was right outside the back door. She is usually very modest and goes to the back fence. She was walking very slowly around the back yard, and while she usually comes and sits by the door to wait for me, she sat down up closer to the house. Not that weird, but not her usual self.
Usually when I get home from work, she is bugging me until I take her out, take her somewhere, or go for a walk. That day, she just went straight back to her bed. I never thought it could be anything serious. I laid in bed to read and watched her sit with her face toward the wall, then lay down toward the wall, then turn around and sit up with her eyes closed. She started bobbing her head left and right, and laid back down. She wasn't opening her eyes during any of this.
She finally stood up and walked to where I was laying on the bed, but she didn't do anything except stare at the wall. She was kind of ignoring me when I was saying her name, and was definitely not wagging her tail when I talked to her like normal. When she finally looked at me, her eyes were blood red and snot/liquid was dripping from her eyes and nose onto the floor. I immediately did the wrong thing and started googling, and to me, it looked like distemper even though she had the vaccination.
I called my vet, but she doesn't have an after hours service, so I called the other vet in Bowie, Cross Timbers. I was upset at this point, and told him there was something seriously wrong with my dog and I was afraid it was distemper. He told me that it could be a lot of things, but I could bring her in if I felt like I needed to. And I felt like it.
She was walking slow, but she got up in the car herself and sat in the very back (not in her usual captain chair,) and she got herself out of the car and walked in on her own. The doctor put her on the exam table, but every test he ran came back that she was healthy. No fever, gums were fine, not dehydrated. He said it just looked like she was depressed, except that she was shaking so bad. He also noticed that she had a nervous twitch when he got too close to her face. His exact words were, "Nothing is fundamentally wrong with this dog, but there is something wrong with this dog." He did say her eyes were a little inflamed, so he gave me some eye medicine and told me to bring her back the next morning. He also said that it just looked like she had a headache.
As soon as we got home and she hit the grass beside the car, she squatted to pee. Not that big a deal to some dogs, but she is VERY modest. It was like she just couldn't hold it even though she had just peed a few hours before, and she had gone 13 hours before while holding it.
We went in, she went straight to bed, but when I woke up the next morning, she was sleeping on the bed next to me.
January 8
When I took her outside, she immediately squatted down to pee again, with me right there. Then she couldn't jump up in the car. If I had a raging headache, I wouldn't want to either. I helped her in, and dropped her off at the vet's office and came to work.
The initial news, I could deal with. She was blind in her right eye, but that didn't answer why she was in so much pain. The only thing they could guess was that something happened in her brain/optic nerve that was causing a headache, and eventually caused her to go blind. However, she was not blind in her eye the night before, so it was a "developing" case.
When I went to pick her up, I had a meeting with the doctor. He told me all of the possibilities. He told me that he called the company of the new flea medicine I was using to make sure that this wasn't a common problem. He and the two other doctors at his practice stayed on a conference call with my regular vet over a lunch meeting and ruled certain things out, while saying they couldn't rule out others. All he could do was send me home with pain medicine and nausea medicine and see what time would tell. We went home, I tried to get her to eat a little but she really wasn't having it, and I laid down with her in her bed until she fell asleep. I could not sleep very well and kept checking on her, but she did at one point flip to her other side, and then back to the first side. I tried to get her to go outside 4 times, but she didn't want to get up.
January 9
When I woke up this morning, I went straight to her bed to check on her, and noticed she was wet. I turned the light on and she had peed all over herself and her bed. Again, she never has peed in the house before. I tried to get her up to take her outside to pee, but she wouldn't stand up. I tried to make her stand up, putting her front feet up, but before I could get her back end up, she would fold over and lay back down. It wasn't that she didn't have the strength - she didn't have the will. I immediately called the vet on call (because this was 6 this morning) and told her what was going on. She told me that I should probably bring her in. I couldn't get her in the car and Dad had to call a friend to come help me, then a vet tech had to get her out of the car. The vet did his initial checks, said she still wasn't sick, but her second eyelid was covering her left eye now, making it look really creepy and blood red. Since she was still in the bed, he did note that her pee looked dark, but that they couldn't tell anything much from that. He was going to start with trying to make her stand up first, and they would call me as soon as there was news. So here I am, waiting it out.
Jillie is the Jesus of dogs. She loves everyone, even people who I don't want her to even like. She is friendly toward all animals (except skunks,) and as pit bulls go, she is pretty much the opposite of all the stereotypes. Please send her some good vibes if you've got a minute today.
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