A miracle...

I feel as if we've had a miracle bestowed upon us.

At 3 PM yesterday, R was mostly unresponsive and having seizures. The experts in our town felt his condition was going downhill so fast that he needed all the high tech equipment (possibly a ventilator) and the top specialists at the state veterinary hospital.

Before yesterday, I didn't know that pet ambulances existed. However, R rode in one to Colorado State Vet School, with a wonderful vet who was working overtime for his sake. She told me that R had more seizures in the ambulance so she had to give him more anti-seizure medicine via his IV. I was really glad that he had a vet with him rather than just us.

Very soon after arriving at CSU, he stopped deteriorating and showed glimmers of improvement. By the wee hours of the morning, his life was no longer in immediate danger. We drove home to grab a few hours of sleep. 

At 7AM, he still had "gait ataxia", which means he was walking in a clumsy way and stumbling sometimes. But he hadn't had any seizures since the night before.

So, you can imagine my disbelief upon hearing that his neurological status was completely normal by early this afternoon. Seriously, I thought someone had their messages mixed up. But it was true. And they wanted him home with us so he'd be in a low stress environment. So he is here, sleepy but able to move and behave normally.

The vets now think the neurological symptoms were caused by a toxin, although we will never know what exactly it was - a mushroom, compost, or something else. We are even more confused by the fact that he had not been outdoors off-leash for the previous two days so we knew he hadn't eaten something mysterious.

The vets want his blood drawn regularly over the next few days. Often, toxins act first on the nervous system and then move onto the liver and kidneys a few days later. Our vets will be watching for that and hoping it doesn't happen.

I'll take the miracle that we have so far. Last night, I didn't know if he'd survive, and now he's sleeping on his dog bed at home.

I took these photos the evening before the disaster. As I looked at them last night, I wondered if we'd ever get to go for a walk with him again. I wished we'd taken more note of that particular walk - because I thought it might have been his last. That fact re-teaches me a life lesson - never take tomorrow for granted.

A miracle...

Thanks to all of you. Lots of people don't understand Blogville. In fact, I had no idea what a supportive and loving community I was joining when I wrote my first blog post back in January of 2009. Every time we've had a crisis, you've shared your generous hearts with us. I feel so blessed to be part of this community.

Not surprisingly, I now have a migraine so I'll be stepping away from the keyboard for a little while.