Post by CheshireGrin on Jun 20, 2012 12:46:29 GMT -5
I picked up G from the vet this morning. He's walking, such as it is. He's so doped up on pain meds that he's extremely wobbly, but he's too anxious to actually lie down and rest, which is what he needs most. I'm hoping that that gets better. He was the same way when he needed sedation after getting a mouthful of porcupine quills, but at least that was only one night and then he was good as new. He's going to need to be on these meds for a while.
So, the down and dirty: the car clipped his head. Didn't stop. We thought he had an orbital fracture at first, but that seems okay. His right eyelid is a little droopy, which is most likely trigeminal nerve damage, but he's able to close his eye fully so there's nothing to be done about that but wait and see if it gets better on its own, which it may or may not. Yesterday morning he was showing signs of increased intracranial pressure (could be bleeding, could be swelling, no way to tell for certain) so they were giving him an IV medication called Mannitol, which is a powerful diuretic. We use it for the same purpose in humans. (Conveniently, all of the medications they've given him are ones I was familiar with for people, so that was good.)
That improved, and they were able to stop the Mannitol by mid-afternoon. Other than being dopey from the pain meds, so far he seems neurologically intact. Once they had him stabilized, they were able to sedate him and do some x-rays. (They had hoped to be able to do it without sedation, but he was just too anxious to hold still.)
He appears to have a fracture at C-2. I say "appears" because they were reluctant to say for certain. There is a line on his x-ray which is "highly suspicious" for a fracture, but could also be just a blood vessel or foramen. The only way to see for certain would be to get an MRI, and financially, that's just not feasible. But the vet was able to send his x-rays to a neurologist who consulted free of charge (yay!) and gave her recommendations.
When I picked him up this morning, the vet let me look at the x-rays, and there's no way you can convince me that it's not a fracture. It's hairline, but you can see where it disrupts the cortex. Cut and dried. But there's nothing displaced, and he's not showing any signs of cord compression, so those are very positive things.
Yesterday was hell. Of course this happened just after I had gotten home from work, so we went straight to the emergency vet, and then I was up all day pacing and being a nervous wreck waiting for news. I napped for an hour yesterday evening. That's really the only sleep I've had in the past 48 hours. I just couldn't deal with having him not here.
Anyway, at this point there's nothing really to do but medicine, rest, and time. He's only allowed outside on leash to go to the bathroom. No exercise. No stairs, no climbing/jumping on furniture. I have no idea how I'm going to enforce this once he starts feeling better. Right now he's in enough pain that it's not too bad, but he's such an active, energetic dog most of the time. This is going to be a nightmare.
No way to know at this point if he will make a full recovery or not. He's still holding his head oddly, and he won't turn it to the left. This is probably just because of pain, but it's possible there is significant tendon and/or muscle damage as well which is preventing him from moving it normally. No way to know without an MRI. I asked the vet this morning if having the MRI and knowing the full extent of the damage would change his treatment course, and he said not appreciably, so I feel a lot better about that. I was worried that if we knew the full extent then maybe we should be considering surgery, but he said that he wouldn't do surgery for this type of injury on a dog anyway because it wouldn't improve his quality of life. So I feel a lot better about that decision.
It took me more than two hours to get him out of the car when I brought him home. Somehow, it never occured to me that he would have so much difficulty with it until I was actually there to pick him up, but then he jumped right up into the car like he normally does so I thought maybe it would be okay.
Except when we got home, he just lay there and whimpered and wouldn't move. I even set up a ramp for him so he wouldn't have to jump, and he wouldn't even try it. Just laid there. And of course it's like 85 degrees here today, so now I have this miserable doped up dog lying there panting in a hot car and I can't get him out. Every time I walked away, he would start to cry, but he made no attempt to follow me. I tried making a couple of phone calls, but I couldn't find anyone to come help me. I brought him a bowl of water, and he would drink some, and then just go back to whimpering.
So I sat on the ground next to him and cried hysterically for about an hour.
All told, it took more than two hours for him to finally decide he felt well enough to make it out of the car. I think part of it might have been because I kept giving him water too since I was so worried about him overheating, so then he needed to pee. Nothing like a little motivation.
But now he's in the house, and he's finally settled down while I've been writing and he's sleeping on his bed. I might play with the medication doses a little bit, try to find a happy medium where he's comfortable but not so sedated, because I think being so groggy is making him as miserable as anything else. He's on three medications: an anti-inflammatory, a muscle relaxant, and an opioid pain medication.
He has a follow-up appointment with his regular vet on Monday. (This has all been through the emergency vet up until now.) I don't have to work until Friday, so at least I have today and tomorrow to be home with him.
They sad if it's just the fracture, expect a good 4 weeks for him to recover. If there's other damage, who knows. We may get to a point where we can't control his pain reasonably enough, but I'm not even thinking about that. Right now it's one day at a time. I'm just glad he's home with me.
thoughts and prayers are still going out for him, and you... I'm glad he's home now, and hopefully you both will be feeling better after you get some rest and snuggles. Keep us updated.
Post by CheshireGrin on Jun 20, 2012 12:58:24 GMT -5
Thanks, everyone. He's also still on soft food because it's painful for him to chew, and he hasn't had much of an appetite. I'm trying to think of special things I can give him that will be healthy to keep his strength up, but most of the treats I usually give him are hard. Chewing is one of his favorite things. But he licked some peanut butter off my fingers earlier and that got a good tail wag. So yay!
I kind of want to get up and find myself something to eat since I haven't done that yet today, but he's sleeping so peacefully right now and I'm afraid if I get up and leave the room that he'll follow me. He opens his eyes now and then and looks at me, but he hasn't moved in half an hour or so. I think he's just making sure I'm still here.
apalettepassion.wordpress.com/ WHO IS BONQUIQUI!?!?!?!??!
"I was thinking about getting off on demand, but it sounds like I should be glad that I didn't"
My heart just aches for you and G. I know I'm far away but of there's anything you need, please let me know.
I missed your phone call right after it happened, didn't I? Ugh!
:*(
Oh yeah, I called you on my way to the vet while I was trying not to panic. It's probably just as well that you didn't answer, because if I had had to explain to someone at that moment what was going on, I probably would have lost it. Longest drive of my life.