Can anyone give me some advice/comfort/words of wisdom? This morning when I left for work, Emma was "different". She wouldn't come down the stairs... I finally carried her. But she was still wagging, still ate her treat, etc. She seemed a little more ... can't really explain it...just different. She was holding her head down and seemed like she didn't want to walk around a whole lot.
Throughout the day I called my son to see if he noticed anything. He said "her whine doesn't sound like the normal whine"... a nd again, she wouldn't come down the stairs--he carried her. But other than that, wagging, drinking, eating treats, etc were all normal.
Well, when I got home from work, she normally is off that couch in a heartbeat and doing the basset 500 in the kitchen. Not today. She got up and just walked to the other end of the couch...when I talked to her, she started to whine a whine that I've never heard before. I called my hubby over and we picked her off the couch and laid her on the floor. He pressed on her belly slightly, said it felt hard and she really started to make this moaning sound. Then she started trembling. Her breathing is really heavy... alot of panting. She won't sit still...she's very restless.
So I called my vet who tried to calmly tell me to get her to the ER. So..that's where she is. They did an x-ray...she's not bloating. She had gotten into the garbage saturdya...but the xray showed nothing in her belly or intestines that they could see. They heard an irregular heartbeeat. They saw ..how did they describe it...a "shadow" or something on the xray between two of her organs (can't remember which two now!...I was in panic mode). There was no fluid around her heart...so they didn't think she was in heart failure.
I'm just going crazy here... do anyh of these things sound familiar to any of you? She's still there...they are doing more xrays...blood work...and a bunch of other tests (to the tune of $1,200) to "try" to pinpoint the problem. In the meantime, I had to sign the "do not rescusitate (sp??)" order which just about tore my heart out. She said "typically if they go into heart failure, we are unable to bring them back". I couldn't bare to think of her in pain, so I signed the DNR. Sheesh.
Anyway, I'd love to hear from anyone ...your thoughts, etc. I'm just so sad I can barely breathe.
Thanks- Jean (Emma's mom)
Throughout the day I called my son to see if he noticed anything. He said "her whine doesn't sound like the normal whine"... a nd again, she wouldn't come down the stairs--he carried her. But other than that, wagging, drinking, eating treats, etc were all normal.
Well, when I got home from work, she normally is off that couch in a heartbeat and doing the basset 500 in the kitchen. Not today. She got up and just walked to the other end of the couch...when I talked to her, she started to whine a whine that I've never heard before. I called my hubby over and we picked her off the couch and laid her on the floor. He pressed on her belly slightly, said it felt hard and she really started to make this moaning sound. Then she started trembling. Her breathing is really heavy... alot of panting. She won't sit still...she's very restless.
So I called my vet who tried to calmly tell me to get her to the ER. So..that's where she is. They did an x-ray...she's not bloating. She had gotten into the garbage saturdya...but the xray showed nothing in her belly or intestines that they could see. They heard an irregular heartbeeat. They saw ..how did they describe it...a "shadow" or something on the xray between two of her organs (can't remember which two now!...I was in panic mode). There was no fluid around her heart...so they didn't think she was in heart failure.
I'm just going crazy here... do anyh of these things sound familiar to any of you? She's still there...they are doing more xrays...blood work...and a bunch of other tests (to the tune of $1,200) to "try" to pinpoint the problem. In the meantime, I had to sign the "do not rescusitate (sp??)" order which just about tore my heart out. She said "typically if they go into heart failure, we are unable to bring them back". I couldn't bare to think of her in pain, so I signed the DNR. Sheesh.
Anyway, I'd love to hear from anyone ...your thoughts, etc. I'm just so sad I can barely breathe.
Thanks- Jean (Emma's mom)