Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Hacking up a lung. Or two.

Oh Bell bells what are we ever going to do with you?

Sunday I hung out with Bella all day. It was a day fairly typical of a weekend day with her... we hung around, then went on a good walk. Nothing too exciting. Towards mid-afternoon after our walk, I had showered and was drying my hair in the bathroom when she started to hack. My first instinct, OH SHIT, the dog is barfing. So I grabbed her and put her on the back porch to prevent any sort of projectile vomit. Nothing was really coming out but I SWORE she was gagging/trying to throw up. I figured she had eaten something that was lodged in her throat.

She did that off and on all night but by the time it was time for bed, it hadn't happened for some time. I figured sleep would help.

The next morning: OH MAN. She woke me up at 3am gagging and hacking. By 6am, I just got us both up, let her out only to have her actually regurgitate about every 2 feet. GROSS. Eventually I had to just put her back in her crate because every time she moved, she barfed. And incessantly hacked in between hurling. UGGGGH. And when I took her out to go to the bathroom in this time frame? I'm pretty sure that she woke the whole neighborhood up with her hacking... and they were probably all thinking I was abusing her.

So, back to the vet we go... with the stipulation that if something is REALLY wrong, there might not be a whole lot we can do to save her.

Turns out, she has basically a severe doggie cold/kennel cough. It's running rampant here this summer, even though she's been vaccinated against it (although only against a particular strain... apparently not the strain she got!)

She was injected with a few hardcore antibiotics and about a half an hour later was stumbling around like your every day homeless drunken druggie. At least the hacking had stopped mostly, thanks to some much needed cough suppressant. So. Wow. Miss Bella gets sick again. Story of her life. Luckily I'm happy to report, this time it was nothing too major. And she is on the road to recovery.

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