The Tripawd Times of Nova the Great Dane

Mom calls our house Dog Drama Central.  I don’t know exactly what she means by that, other than that she always freaks out about our continuous health crises.  The thing that is pawesome about Mom is that she is so in tune with Emmy and I, she has this natural instinct that tells her when something is REALLY wrong with us.  And then she moves heaven and earth to make sure that we get the best care possible.  I know she jokes a lot about how we are the “Million Dollar Dogs” and that her life will be spent working for that next paycheck to pay our medical bills, but I also know that she thinks it is worth every penny.

Anyway, yesterday Emmy was the star of the show at Dog Drama Central.  Mom and Dad went off to Island Lake kayaking for the afternoon, and on her way out the door Mom found a small pile of puke and blamed it on me.  Excuse me?  She was in a rush, so she did a quick clean up and said she’d work more on the spot later with her super-loud and scary SpotBot cleaning machine (I hate that thing).  When they got back later, Mom took Emmy outside and she pretty much heaved her guts out in the yard, well, what was left of it.  She was drooling like crazy, so Mom knew she was really nauseated.  She brought her inside and hand fed us some ice cubes.  Emmy laid down looking very sad and sick.  Mom went to go get on her computer and found 2 more piles of puke, so started with the cleaning machine.  Then she discovered another pile in her bedroom next to her bed. Then she heard my brother yell that someone had puked all over the bottom bunk of his bunk bed.  She went in there and started to clean it up, and my brother and his friend ran out screaming because they said that Mom was picking through it pulling out various objects.  Mom is very nosy this way, but she wanted to try to figure out what Emmy might have eaten.  She found a puke-covered wrapper and rinsed it out to discover nothing but the tiny words “High in Protein, No Trans Fats, 70% Organic Ingredients” on it.  It didn’t take her long to figure out that it was the wrapper from one of my brother’s Blueberry Crisp Clif Bars, that he had left half eaten in his room.  She also found what looked like little plastic shards from the little tie you find on a loaf of bread.  But nothing really major, considering Emmy has been known to eat some really strange stuff, and always seems to poop it out.

Well, Emmy started to seem sicker and sicker, and very listless.  Mom tried to give her a Pepcid in a piece of cheese, and she wouldn’t take it.  Now that might not seem like a big deal, but my sister NEVER has turned down food, EVER.  So Mom said it was time to go for a R-I-D-E and they went out the door real fast.  I tried to hop as fast as I could, so I could go too, but they left me.  I made sure my displeasure was known by howling for the next hour or two.  Mom was gone for a very long time, and when she came back, Emmy wasn’t with her.  I sniffed around looking for her, but Mom just laid down with me to comfort me and tell me that my sister was really sick and needed to stay in the hospital.  OWWWRRRROOOOOO!  I was very lonely, so last night I slept in Emmy’s spot, which is our two dog beds on the floor.  (I prefer to sleep on the couch).  I also hopped in to Mom and Dad’s room a couple of times during the night to sleep and wake Mom up so she would call to check on Emmy.

The good news is that there does not seem to be any sort of blockage inside Emmy (they took some x-rays last night) and her bloodwork mostly just showed signs of extreme dehydration and some elevated liver enzymes, which the Doctor told Mom were probably from her long-term used of Prednisone.  They put Emmy on IV fluids and she finally started to take in food again this afternoon.  They have been watching her to make sure she doesn’t puke it up again.  So far Mom doesn’t have a really good answer as to what actually caused Emmy to get so sick.  The Doctor said possibly pancreatitis, but Mom is going to find out more when she goes to pick her up tonight.  That’s right, Emmy is coming home tonight!  I can’t wait to have my sissy back.  I’ve been going outside a lot today to look for her, and wait for her in the yard, but Mom keeps making me come inside because it’s so hot.  Here is a picture of me waiting for Emmy out in the yard today:

Emmy, Come Home Soon!