From "Peg Leg" to "Patches"

My poor baby, 2nd trip to emergency in as many weeks.
Last night at 1:00 AM Mickey wanted to go outside. She went out & I noticed she had the runs (sorry). It happened 2 more times in the next hour, then when she was laying on the bed I felt a wet spot, I discovered she was also bleeding. :-( I took her to the emergency hospital again and they took some blood & other tests & determined she had a condition called Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis, which is a "rapidly occuring inflammatory condition of the small intestine." The best I understand is that some kind of bacteria inflames the intestines & they start to bleed. If they catch it early, which we did, they can treat it by having her stay 12-24 hours in the hospital with an IV for electrolytes & antibiotics. They said on a busy night they can have 2-3 cases so it's fairly common, but also very serious if you don't treat them right away. They also don't know what causes it, but said it's not contagious. She came home late this afternoon & will be on antibiotics for awhile. She wasn't acting very normal at 1st but she's coming around. (sigh) So now instead of just the 1 shaved area on her left paw from last week's incident (see previous blog), she was shaved in another spot on the same leg AND her right leg (still in bandage below, which she won't let me remove.)
I only had a few hours sleep last night, but we will all hopefully sleep better with our baby back at home.

Close-up without bandage:

Mickey is a "Peg Leg"

My baby Mickey gave us a scare last night. I was in the back yard with her & noticed she was limping, pulling her front paw up. I examined it & didn't see anything but she kept limping, so I checked again. Whenever I would get close to touching it she would try to bite me. Not a good sign. I found something that could've been a thorn or some kind of stinger. Within 5-10 minutes she was laying on the floor and wouldn't come to me when I called her, wouldn't even lift her head, and I knew something must've bit her. I called the vet which was closing in minutes & they said to go to the Vet Emergency Hospital which didn't open for 40 more minutes! We were stuck in the "closed" zone. Ugh. So Dad & I jumped in the car with her to go to the hospital. About 1/2 way there she became listless and was panting. At one point her tongue was hanging out & I was afraid she was having a hard time breathing. Really scary now, and then the traffic slowed to almost a stop...with 2 miles to go. I was praying at this point. Literally seconds after I prayed, she perked up! She was not normal yet, but better. We made it to the emergency vet & even thought they were closed, I went to the door & knocked. The nurse came to the door & asked what was wrong, and at this point Mickey was wagging her tail! I was starting to breath normally. I'm sure the nurse thought I was nuts, but in those minutes that everything is happening, you are thinking the worst & don't know what will happen. About 20 mins. later they opened & Mickey saw the Dr. They said she probably was biten by something, shaved her paw & examined it, then gave her a shot for the pain & inflammation. Except for some tenderness on her paw, she was back to my bouncey Mickey. But now I have to call her Peg Leg. Check out her paws:

EDIT: 10/13/08, I just called the vet to let them know what happened & so that they could add the info to her file. I explained how she had been deteriorating quickly, and then suddenly just seemed to pop out of it. I said, "Does that happen? Is that normal?" She paused for a few seconds, then said, "no not really, that doesn't usually happen." So, is it coincidence that she seemed to spring back to life within 30 seconds of praying? I think not. Thank you Jesus.