Hey all you Easter Blogees :)
Hope you all are having a wonderful long weekend that is full of chocolate and pretty, dyed eggs :) Me... I'm trying to avoid the temptations of chocolate because, no matter how much I could come up with reasons for justifying it, the fact remains I don't need to smack more chocolate on the hips and that is where it goes directly to :)
Well, this has definitely been a somewhat traumatic and expensive week... all because of my little darling, diva, Bridget. I still can't get over the fact that she is such a stoic little terrier. The fact her little mouth was in trouble, she never once uttered any sounds or gave any clue that she was in pain. Mind you, Dr. Joan did explain to me today when we went out for lunch that it's quite possible it all happened quite quickly... but still. I thought I knew her every little change and assumed that if she was ever in any kind of discomfort, then I would certainly know about it. So it comes as a huge shock that I did not recognize the discomfort she was in... she is a great little actress that little schnauzer of mine!
So, the long and short of it, I took her in last Monday knowing that she had to have at least 1 or 2 teeth pulled and that she had an inflamed section of her gum. So while she was going to be under anesthesia to have the 1 or 2 teeth taken out, Dr. Joan would also be able to give the teeth a good cleaning. Well, the second shock hit once she was under the anesthesia. Her mouth was actually quite a mess... she had to have EIGHT teeth extracted, a couple of them were very tricky to get out. But they were so loose and you can't leave loose teeth because they cause infection. Just like in people, infection is not something you want to play around with ... it can turn septic very quickly. So the poor darling had 8 teeth extracted on Monday. This is not the first time she has had to have teeth taken out. Unfortunately, this is one of the bad traits of the schnauzer breed... weak teeth. Over the 11 years I have had her, the first time we had to take out 2 teeth because of a run in with a German Shepherd who bit her on her mouth and broke two teeth. Another time, she had to have 4 teeth taken out because they were loose. And then there was the time when she had an abscess... and two teeth had to come out at that time. Now 8 of them, including the teeth at the front on the bottom. Joan said, unfortunately, there were some more that probably should have come out but she figured 8 were more than enough for this session... but we may be looking at more next year :/
Anywho... it was heart breaking when I went to pick her up. Her little tail was going a mile a minute when she saw her mommy was back, but between the anesthesia and the shot of pain medication, she was a little disoriented and confused... so was giving these cries that sounded human. She, who is usually a little Miss Independent, turned into a total Mommy's Girl. She was like a velcro dog... hanging on to me for dear life. She did NOT want me to leave again without taking her with me. Mind you, it was interesting... when we put her in the car on her bed, she stopped crying immediately. She knows her car and her bed in the car and this is a safe place... it means she is not going to be left behind.
We then went home and you could almost see her breathing easier once she was at home. But, I guess we had been home about 2 hours or so and she was lying on her pillow on the couch when she started the crying again. It wasn't howling, but this pitiful, heart breaking cry. I figured the pain medicine was probably wearing off so Joan had given me pain meds to take home with me. Now, the question was how to get her to take the pill when 1) it's a pill and 2) her mouth is sore. No problem... I made a tiny cheese ball with the pill in the middle and sure enough, she ate it with no problems. Within about 20 mins. she was off in la-la-land... but still crying a bit in her sleep.
When I put her in bed and climbed in with her with my book... that did the trick. Now she felt safe... she was in bed with her mommy... and that's all she needed. She crashed at that point and slept the whole night. So, this week she's been on antibiotics and the pain meds... and soft food. But her appetite is good and her energy is good, so all is good! Today (Sat) was the first day where she had no pain meds and did just fine :) She will be on antibiotics until Thursday... and will be going in for her followup appt. on Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, Dr. Joan and I went out for lunch today, so after lunch, Joan popped in to the apartment just to have a quick look at Bridget... and she is very happy with how well she's doing. Her mouth is healing great.
Soooo, that has been our week. It's definitely been all about Bridget. That little dog of mine has been with me through thick and thin, so to have the shoe on the other foot and know that she is in pain and needed some heavy duty work done to her poor little mouth, well, that was pretty scary. Then to add to that, she had a very deep cough, caused by the breathing tube irritating her throat. That kind of freaked me out since it sounded really bad. And it lasted Mon - Thurs night... but by Friday, it had magically cleared up. For a while there it looked like we were going to have to change her pain meds to a different pain med with a cough suppressant... but luckily the cough disappeared Thurs night, so no need for anymore medication :)
I'm feeling MUCH better knowing that she is doing ok now. Today is my friend, Steve's birthday, so tomorrow we are all heading out to his parents' out in Maple Ridge for a combination Birthday/Easter celebration. It will be quite chaotic there with lots of people so Bridget is going to stay home with Toby who lives across the hall. There is no way I'm going to get her all stressed out with lots of people, children, dogs, etc. when she has just gotten over the trauma of this week ;)
But, it should be fun... and all the good intentions I had of catching up on some web work and EMAILS (sorry folk, I'm still so far behind in email!!)... well, those didn't quite happen, but hey, I did get a load of laundry done!! LOL!!
Hugggggs,
Cheryl
