Here is Percie and Joe in the vets office before Percie got her shots. The vet gave her her shots and checked her over. Percie has been sticking her paw in her ear and scratching, so the vet checked it out and said she had some irritation in her ear. She said it wasn't an ear infection yet, but she gave us some drops. 
Percie is not so sure about being at the vets office. She has spent entirely too much time there lately!
When we got home from the vet, Joe, Percie, and I went to mama's house to grill. We had pork chops, steaks, and veggies. It was a great meal! While we were eating I noticed Percie rooting around in the chair. That is not like her at all. She kept drinking water and rolling around on the floor. (I should trust my gut more. I knew she wasn't acting right.) When we got finished eating, Joe noticed that Percie's eye was swollen. Then we noticed her mouth was swollen and she had hives all over. (Have you ever seen a dog break out in hives? Its a very interesting and scary sight!) She was having a reaction to her shots!!
Joe grabbed Percie and I got the phone and called our vets office to get the vet on call's number. I called and no one answered, so I left a message. Percie was getting worse quickly and I was worried about her breathing so I tried calling mama's vet in Beebe. They had the phone number for the emergency vet clinic in N. Little Rock. I called the emergency clinic and they said to bring her in. We gave her a benedryl before we left, and I am so glad we did. It helped!
This is a picture of poor Percie 25 minutes after she had the benedryl. She was actually looking better. You can see the hives on her back and her swollen eye. (Scroll up and check out the before picture when she was at the vet and compare it to the after picture. Big difference, huh?) When the vet tech checked her over, she noticed bruising on her gums. When we were at the vets office at 3:00 p.m., there was no bruising. I watched the vet check her gums, and I didn't see anything bruising then. But I definitely saw it at the emergency clinic.
The emergency vet told us that the bruising didn't have anything to do with the reaction she had to her shots. He told us he wanted to check her blood counts and clotting ability. (These are the same tests we had done at the vets office following Percie's c section. After her c section, the vet told us to look for the bruising on her gums, and to get her to a vets office immediately if we saw it. So I knew it wasn't good.) We waited a while (there were other doggies there that were sicker than Percie) and the vet told us that her platelets were low. He told us he wasn't sure what was causing the low platelets. He did say that the steroids and epinephrine that he gave her were working and the swelling and hives were going down.
He told us we had 2 options: 1) We could take her home with more medicine and watch her all night and see if the bruising got worse, or 2) we could leave her there over night. After asking more questions, and calling Joe (He had to work tonight. Mama went with me.) we decided to leave her there. They have a tech that stays with them all night, and the vet is asleep upstairs. He is right there if they have an emergency. They will check her vital signs every 2 hours, re-check her blood count, re-check her clotting ability, give her fluids, and many other things that I cannot remember right now. The main reason we decided for her to stay was because they told us that how fast we got Percie back there if the bruising got worse would matter. N. Little Rock is not far, but it took me 20 minutes to get there (driving quickly with my flashers on) tonight.
They will call us if anything gets worse, and we can call and check on her anytime. (I've already called once. No change.) We are supposed to be there before 7:00 a.m. to pick her up. Six a.m. is going to come early since it is midnight and I'm still up.
Say a little prayer for Percie, and hopefully we can find out what is causing the low blood count and how we can fix it!
Rae
1 comment:
Rae, I'm thinking of you! I've had to leave Darby overnight at the vet/hospital, and it's so hard. You just want them to feel better, and they can't tell you what hurts so that makes you even more nervous. I'm saying a little prayer for Percie and her momma!
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