So, yesterday evening started off normally enough... McGee had to work late to prep for a big meeting today, but when he got home Guinness was SO excited to see him (as usual). There was some play-time and fun, and then after a bit McGee and I sat on the couch to relax and watch TV. Guinness decided to jump up and join us (he likes to sit on the cushion between us), and he did this crazy long jump over McGee's legs to get on the middle cushion, because he's CRAZY and he's always doing nutty things like that. So, it was normal, and we just kept watching TV. Well, after about 5 minutes, Guinness started acting weird and he seemed like he wanted to get off the couch, but he seemed confused about how to get down. So, I helped him down... and he walked over in front of the TV and sat quite oddly and he was panting a bit... so I was just kinda watching him... And then he walked into our dining room and walked around to the back of the table (kinda hiding from us) and sat there. That is NOT normal behavior for Guinness... He always wants to be as close to us as possible. I could see him through the dining room table legs though, and I could see that he was still panting and sitting kinda funny. I thought maybe he was feeling nauseous or something, so I was still just watching him... But then I mentioned to McGee that Guinness was acting weird. So then McGee walked into the dining room and started talking to Guinness, and then we went into the kitchen with him to see if maybe he had to vomit (tile floors in there)... But he was acting SO weird, and he was shaking all over, and his breathing was getting worse.
So, by this point we were starting to get SUPER concerned, because Guinness is always just happy, hyper, and healthy. We were still thinking maybe he was nauseous though or just not feeling good, so we tried to take him outside to go to the bathroom, and he would NOT go. He just sat down and refused to budge. That has NEVER happened before. So then we were trying anything to get him to act normal. We were trying to tempt him with treats, we tried to give him an ice cube (he LOVES ice and comes running anytime he hears us getting ice out of the freezer), and we were trying to get him to come to us when we called him. He wouldn't budge. His breathing was getting even worse, and he was shaking SO badly, so McGee started Googling the symptoms while he was also looking up the nearest 24-hour Vet (our vet is 24-hours but is about 25 minutes away). I was just sitting with Guinness on the floor trying to soothe him and see if I could figure out what was going on. His breathing was getting SO much worse... He would pant like crazy (and he was drooling a LOT) and then he would have some moments where his breathing would slow down to nothing and he'd just stand there shaking with his mouth wide open and his eyes closing. So, I was getting full-on freaked out and I said to McGee, "I think we need to go". And he said, "Yeah?" And I said, "Yeah". So McGee had already mapped it and the closest vet was 14 minutes away, or our vet that we like a lot was 25 minutes away (and we know it's a great facility), so we opted to go to our vet. I gave them a call and told them we were coming (and I was already starting to cry so my throat was all tight while I was trying to speak), but the lady on the phone was SO nice. McGee was doing a great job of holding it together and comforting me and Guinness, and he drove (like a champ) while I sat in the back with Guinness.
When we got to the vet, they were amazing. I was so thankful that they were so calm and kind and just ON IT. But we were getting more and more worried about Guinness because he usually loses his mind with excitement and stress at the vet, and he's usually so hyper and crazy. He was very calm, and he calmly sat on the scale to weigh-in (that has NEVER happened... we usually have to hope that he stands still for 2 seconds so they can get a weight measurement of some kind), and he was sitting calmly in the exam room. The shaking, drooling, and erratic breathing was still happening though. The vet (who was awesome!) pretty quickly figured out that Guinness was in pain or discomfort, and his shaking, drooling, and erratic breathing was due to that. So then we had to figure out where the pain/discomfort was coming from... The vet said his heart sounded perfect (whew!!!), and he figured out that when he was pressing on certain areas on Guinness's back that Guinness was having a very strong reaction. He did more checking around, but determined that Guinness definitely injured his back, which started making a LOT of sense since the symptoms started about 5 minutes after his crazy long jump over McGee onto the couch.
The vet took Guinness into the back room to do a quick blood draw to check for a few other things, and after they left the room McGee and I both breathed a HUGE sigh of relief and we were tearing-up from the relief of it. We'd been SO scared and stressed out. McGee was a champ and had managed to completely hold it together until that moment, but I'd been fighting back being a wreck for like 2 hours. Haha :) We were both tearing-up after we knew he was ok, so thank goodness they had tissues in that room!! They gave Guinness an injection of some heavy-duty pain meds. It was methadone... When they first said "methadone" we thought they were joking, but nope, it was ACTUALLY methadone. And they gave us some anti-inflammatory drugs and some pain meds (NOT methadone) to give to him for two weeks, and then we have a follow-up appointment. During those two weeks we have to keep Guinness from doing ANY jumping or exercising... We can't even take him for a walk. So, wish us luck with that one!! Haha :) Guinness seems SO much better today already. What a relief!!! Here are some old pictures of our sweet little guy:
Puppy Guinness!
Ugh, that face... He too cute.
This is like toddler-age Guinness!
Handsome boy! This was last year.
Don't worry, this is from last week!! We're not letting him on the couch until the two weeks are up.
That was our terrible, horrible, no good, really bad evening!! Everything is MUCH better today though, and we're relieved to know it's nothing serious. Our boy should be feeling back to 100% in no time.
No comments:
Post a Comment