It isn't very often that the GI education that I have gotten with Ellie translates into the rest of my life.
Today was a little bit different.
It started last night with dinner. Ellie, Abby and I eating dinner. At the table like a real family which is still a little weird for me after all of those months of transient living. A nice meal including fresh local corn.
We finished dinner and I cleared out plates and headed to Wellesley to do some more clean up to make Mr Grumpy the landlord happy enough to give us our full deposit back.
About 8:30 I get a call from Abby.
"How many ears of corn did we eat?"
"Four."
"Oh Shit. I knew he was eating something."
It turns out that Gus the Wonderdog thought that the buttery corn cobs that were in the trash were too good to pass up and ate two of them.
I knew that corncobs were bad for dogs and could cause intestinal obstructions and even worse things. So when I got home we gave Gus a few turkey basters full of Peroxide and watched him barf for us. Big chunks of corn cob.
We thought that we were out of the woods until this morning when Gus decided to barf for us three times in an hour, once on the rug, once under Ellie's highchair while she was in it, and once outside.
A quick call to vet and our sixth visit to the Wayland Animal Hospital this summer and I suddenly found myself talking to a vet about obstructions, resections, adhesions, anastomoses, contrast studies and KUB films. It took a few quizzical looks before I realized that I needed to clarify my intimate knowledge of gastroenterology to the nice guy and gave him the cocktail party version of Ellie's story.
He was pale by the end even when i told him that she is great.
In the end Gus became an emergency inpatient and had surgery early this afternoon to explore his gut and remove any pieces of cob that may have lodged in his bowel. Apparently the little fingers in the bowel and the sockets in a corn cob fit together like velcro and clog up the works.
The report this evening is that Gus has a clear bowel and was recovering nicely without any need to open his bowel or do any resectioning. This is good because the thought of a dog with a g-tube is just too much to handle even if he and Ellie would be very cute with matching buttons.
We hope that he will be home in the next couple of days.
It is lonely around here without our boy and the floors are an absolute mess without him around to lick up after Ellie.
5 comments:
I like how you just casually said, "She is great." That's a mild understatement. Ellie is a wild woman, and getting ready to take her seat on the Talkers' Bus, up front with Grampa and Jeremy. Your house is magnificent and at least a couple of times a day I think of Ellie running around in all that space, and the hot pink shelves in her room. See you soon!
Amazing events with Gus! We have a black lab, and I can totally identify. It was fun picturing the vet's face during your "gut discussion", although I'm sure the whole experience was no fun for you all or Gus.
Congrats on the new house!
Aw, poor punkin. Good thoughts to the wonderdog. I know your knowledge was a big advantage for him. When we moved to CT, the day before I started at Mystic, Paige got Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis (or HGE, as it is often known). It was emergency vet and scary. Since then, she has consumed a towel, half a sheet, and a power cord (luckily not plugged in, and good for a hysterical X-ray). She now has a dedicated Peroxide syringe. Looking forward to news of his happy return home!
oh- poor doggy! :( I hope he's home soon. I'm really awed by how incredible Ellie continues to do and its nice to see that you're getting settled into your new house. Yay!
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