What's the scariest thing (quasi-long)

[beausmommy]

That's so strange. My brother's JRT swallowed a hook with about 6 inches of line on it one day when I was watching him at his house. I had to rush him to the emergency vet. They took an x-ray and found that the hook was lodged in his throat. They put him under anesthesia and removed the hook. My brother was stuck with a $350 vet bill, but I'm now Ripken's "guardian angel" because he would have been all alone and could have died if I hadn't been there. I'd be so sad if my little Ripken weren't around!

 

[BentleysMama]

I'm so lucky that we really haven't been scared too badly with Bentley. The biggest scare was probably when he had an allergic reaction to his puppy shots one time and swelled up his leg so much he wouldn't walk on it. I was scared and we did spend the money to take him to the emergency vet but was later told it really wasn't that big of a deal I guess. With just a little Benedryl he should have been good as new.

Oh, he did get into the dog food tub of my parent's dog and ate and ate until it was coming out both ends!! ewww. By the time I got to him though he was really fine. He must have gotten most of it out before my mom got home and found him.

 

[presley101]

A few years ago with the female we had, Parker, she got up one morning with this GIANT butt bulge. It looked like her butt was about to explode. Of course it waws over the weekend so we made the trek to the emergency vet. I learned that her anal gland was impacted. DUH! I knew that but had never seen one swell like that or be that big overnight.
The vet was nice and calm when she told me it would probably rupture and ooze out her back end. Not good enough. I wanted something to help with the pain. They finally gave me antibiotics and sent us home. A few days later the swelling went down and she could sit again.

She also had a mammary tumor that swelled up like an egg overnight. Thank goodness it was during the week and we went to my wonderful vet. He took her immediately to remove it via surgery. Turned out to be cancer so by having it taken off, we possibly made her life longer. It pays to be one of those "crazy" people who loves all over their dogs every day. You never know what you might find and it could save your baby's life.

 

[Shanz]

When I first got Cinnamon, i notices some blood in her poop so my mom made me make a vet visit right away because she was worried about the possibility of parvo. The next day we were on our way with a stool sample.

She checked out clear and ended up getting her puppy shots. I brought her home then took her to work with me and my nephew came and saw her and was playing with her, then she just flopped over onto her back with her legs stiff in the air and she couldnt move and her eyes were bulging out of her head and you could see she was scared

So off we went back to the vet and it turns out she had an allergic reaction to her shots---we think it was the lepto shot because it has a high allergic reaction rate.

So needless to say she gets benadryl before every shot.

 

[Maxwell's Ma]

You all have read about our scarriest thing to happen with Maxwell. Our babies are so fast. They are there and then in a second they are not. Sunday when Max got into my daughter's pills I told my DH goodbye and before he got out the door Max wasn't standing by me. I literally turned around. It wasn't really 3-5 mins before I found him. He scarred the crap out of me and now he is attached to me every minute he isn't in his crate.

 

[CondoPup]

Guinness had a leg infection that was spreading... and could have killed him had we not acted quickly.

This was January 2005. One Monday morning he came walking out of his crate on three legs. No idea why. By midday he was lethargic and by afternoon we were at the Vet. Tests were run, he got anti-inflammatories, we scheduled X-rays for the next day as that back leg was clearly causing him pain. X-rays showed nothing but he was still lethargic. By the next day (Weds.) his hock started to really swell up. By later that afternoon it had spread to his upper leg and he was still lethargic. He wouldn't eat, drink, or get up/go out to pee (we had to carry him downstairs and support his underbelly with a "sling" made from a towel, to give him some relief and let him empty his bladder). When the Vet heard of the swelling and that it was moving, she said to bring him in ASAP. More tests, blood work, etc. and still no answer but he was put on several antibiotics to try and cover everything. Also had fluid treatment as he was starting to dehydrate.

A day on antibiotics and he started perking up a bit and eating/drinking a little. But at this point it was nearly a week and still no diagnosis and not weight-bearing on that back leg. I was a basket case, sleeping (well not really - I couldn't sleep - too scared we were going to lose him!) on the hardwood floors next to his crate (and understand, he was already normally sleeping in my bed by then - but when he was ill, all he wanted was his little doggy den where he felt most safe and secure).

Friday of that week a huge, angry red bite mark shows up on his rear leg (I'll post pics in my gallery so you can see it, along with another showing how swollen his leg was). This is typical of some bug bites, the red mark doesn't show up for several days. In one pic you can almost see two puncture wounds so whatever it was that bit him, got him good.

I took digital photos to the Vet to spare Guinness another trip, and she immediately added Benadryl to his regimen. At one point he needed 13 pills a day, with two doses of one antibiotics, three doses of another, two of the anti-inflammatories, and two Benadryl pills three times a day!!! Thank goodness for peanut butter.

Adding the Benadryl to his pills sped up his recovery considerably but it was weeks before he was weight-bearing again, and a couple of months before strenuous exercise didn't result in a slight limp for a few hours thereafter.

I am assuming he encountered the bug in the basement of a friend that we had visited the Sunday before this started. She had returned from traveling abroad the night before that, and had unpacked all her suitcases/laundry, and Guinness spent a lot of time in their basement (which is part rec-room, part laundry room). It was probably a bug that isn't native to this area.

The pics should be up tomorrow if approved. This may not be as scary as some of the other stories on this post but I'll tell you, it gave me a taste of just how heart-wrenching it is when your furbaby goes through an ordeal that risks their lives. I love him so much and it was such a blessing that he got through it okay.

 

[SuzAllen]

Let's see

There was the time Benny had been playing and all of a sudden his eye started swelling (of course on a Friday night) off to the Emergency Vet, where he had to stay because they didn't know what it was, and of course I'm thinking tumor. Finally Saturday night I couldn't stand him being there so we picked him up and took him back every 6 hours for medication. Took him to the eye specialist on Monday, and had him on medication for 6 weeks, and we still don't know what happened.

This year it was his stomach, vomiting blood so again on Saturday it's off to the Emergency Vet, where they keep him again, this happened to be a specialist that my regular vet recommended, (and of course first thing I think of is cancer), turned out to be bacteria in his blood.

There were more scary times from Benny, but I'll stop now. Lola has just been wonderful no problems what so ever (knock on wood), just the usual boxer distructo stuff!

 

[Layla's Mum]

I have a few scary times with Layla. One is when we went to a friends cabin and she hopped out of the car and ran free to see a friend and jumped off a small hill and landed on a horsehoe stake that was sticking out of the ground. She flipped over and it caught her on her neck (actually left skin and fur on the stake when I went to remove it from the ground) She almost was impailed on it. Soo scary and I'll never forget the sound of her yelp.
Another one was when she spent 24 hours straight throwing up. We took her to the vent and they had to flush her stomach with water and thought that it was bloat! She had to spend the night in the hospital and I have never been so scared in my entire life. I was home throwing up the entire night just thinking about her and worried to death.
Another was the time half her face blew up like the elephant man after I gave her an orange. And then the times that her whole face swelled up and forced her two eyes shut! Probably after getting bit by some kind of bug in the garden. So scary.