Lilly
 

I took my dog (Lilly) to the kennel at her vet when I went to the Outer Banks. She was there from Wednesday the 2nd through Monday the 7th. When I picked her up on the 7th, I noticed she was snorting, sniffling, and sneezing. Here's a timeline of what happened next.

Tuesday the 8th
She vomited twice overnight and her bowels were very loose. I made appointment with the vet for Thursday.

Wednesday the 9th
She did not vomit anymore, but her bowels were still loose.

Thursday the 10th
The vet did a full exam. She was diagnosed with a respiratory infection and given an antibiotic along with medicine for her bowels.

Friday the 11th
Mom picked her up to watch her during my trip to Kansas City.

Saturday the 12th
She began vomiting a lot. Mom took her back to her vet. Mom told them that when she is vomiting and snorting, she is making the same noise she made when she swallowed something a few years ago. The vet said they do not believe she swallowed anything, but think that she is having a reaction to the antibiotics. They gave her a stomach settler injection, a steroid injection, and hydrated her. They put her on a very bland diet. They wanted to reevaluate her on Monday.

Sunday the 13th
She vomited overnight several times and again in the morning. Mom took her to the emergency vet center that morning. They evaluated her, and said that she was completely dehydrated. They gave her some IV's. The vet asked if it was possible that she swallowed something. They completed bloodwork, which all came back normal. They wanted to do some x-rays. They said that if they saw anything in the x-ray, they were going to wait a few hours and re-x-ray to see if it has moved to show she was passing it.

Mom left Lilly there, then went back later that afternoon to look at the x-rays with the vet. The x-rays showed a foreign object in her small bowel, which appeared to be round. They re-x-rayed a few hours later. These x-rays showed that it has not moved, so the vet called Mom to say that they really think they should do the surgery. She gave them the go-ahead. They called around 10:00pm to say that they found a five foot long piece of string that ran from back of her tongue all the way to her small intestines where it was beginning to gather. They said that the string would have never passed on its own and that she probably wouldn't have lived more than a few days if they hadn't performed the surgery.

When Mom told me about the string they found, I remembered that one day during the week after the kenneling I came home from work to find a long string coming out of the floor mat at my front door. I didn't think anything of it at the time, because from time to time her nails will pull some of the threads. I'm guessing that she wasn't feeling well and tried to make herself throw up by eating at the mat and ended up eating five feet of it.

They also said that when they went in for surgery, her pancreas was very inflamed, so they flushed it. She was put on medicines through IV. They said that as soon as she could swallow a pill, she could come home.

Wednesday the 16th
Mom picked her up in the morning. She was doing better.

Friday the 18th
She was acting completely like normal - almost back to her ole' self.

Saturday the 19th
She was acting a bit mopey. She wanted to lay around. That evening, she tried to jump over a gate they had put up to block her from the living room. Her external incision opened up. Mom took her back to the emergency vet. The vet said that she could be rejecting the stitches. They took her back for surgery to restitch and added some staples. They said that she had some scar tissue around the incisions. They said that everything internal looks great. There is no scar tissue or adhesions. They said that although it is still early, everything looks really good at this point. They decided to keep her overnight, since surgery took longer than expected.

Sunday the 20th
Mom picked her up in the morning. She is currently on pain medicine and antibiotics.

She did well overnight and is looking good so far this morning.

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I got home from Kansas City last night. Since Mom works from home and can watch her around the clock, Lilly is going to stay there until she is completely healed and 100% back to normal. I really want to see her, but I know that she will get upset when I leave. :(

fingers crossed.

Awwww, poor Lilly!!! I have my fingers crossed that she gets back to full health very soon.

My dog is named Lilly also! Sounds like a close call, but that she will be fine now. Dogs recover very quickly.

Glad she's doing better. I'm sure she'll be back to her old self in no time. Just have to keep an eye on those incisions and give her lots of love. When you first started describing what was wrong, it sounded like she had a case of kennel cough... but to get a string stuck. How on earth does that happen while boarding??????

When a string comes loose from a blanket or something. Speedy Recovery, Lilly :thumbup:

Thanks, guys. :hug:

When I first picked her up from the kennel, I googled her symptoms and they matched the exact symptoms of kennel cough, but she has the vaccine for it back in October. So the vet treated herfor a respiratory infection.

All I know is that she was sick after staying at the kennel...which was before she ate the string at my house. It's all very strange.

Aww, been there, done that, my dog is my child and it's a terrible feeling, best of luck M

Poor Pup - I know how you care alot about the little one. Especially, all the trials for you to get her to a nice home (yours). Glad that your mom is looking out for her and will keep my fingers crossed too. Just let us know her progress and yours too...

Dogs are tough as hell, now worries. You should go see her though, you're her world and he'll feel better by just seeing you. When i've had dogs in the past that pee on the floor from excitement, that tells me they need me LOL. Now if I can only find a gf that gets that excited....wait, then again ;)

Whoa! At first I thought it was just Kennel cough. Glad she is better!:thumbup:

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I've been going through a similar situation with my dog.. over 3k spent this year over cancer and an enlarged spleen, still not out of the woods :(

I'm sorry Michelle..

All of us dog lovers feel your pain. It's so hard sometimes because dogs can't talk and tell us what's wrong.

I hope Lily has a speedy recovery..

Thanks, guys.

I'll be seeing her tonight. She has to go for a follow-up with her normal vet at 6:00. I'm going to meet Mom there.

M

We hope Lilly is feeling better, please let us know.

Bill

Another dog lover here. I wish you the best.

Get well soon.

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o...77/TeeFee1.jpg

poor lilly. i hope she has a speedy recovery.

Thanks, everyone.

She had her follow-up appointment with the vet last night. I met Mom and her there. She spotted me walking across the parking lot. She was really excited to see me. She looks great! The vet said that her incision is healing well. She is ahead of schedule with everything. Her staples will come out in a week and a half.

I went back to Mom's house after the vet appointment and spent a few hours with her. She laid in my lap the entire time. I'm off of work tomorrow, so I'm going to stay at Mom's tonight. :)

Great news:thumbup:

:thumbup:

Glad that Lills is doing great!

Glad to hear she's doing better!

I went to Mom's after work on Wednesday got to spend Wednesday night and Thursday with Lilly. She is doing so good! She barked for the first time since surgery and even picked up one of her toys to play. She's not supposed to climb, jump, or play for another week, so it's going to be very tough trying to keep her from acting normal while she's still healing. It's great to see her getting back to her old self, but we have to make sure she isn't doing any damage to herself since she isn't completely healed.


Here is a picture I took of her incision. It's 3 1/2" long.

OUCH.

That looks painful.

Glad to hear everything is looking good.

yowie. glad shes on the up :)

Looks like the same size scars Nikita and Maggie had when they were spayed.

Hope she's doing better.

That still hurts looking at that...

Awwww, poor little baby Lilly :(. That had to tear you apart Chelle :( . Really glad to hear that she is recovering nicely!