Well, I missed them so much and knew she'd be so excited to have it back, I gave it to her, and she went to town. Seriously. She was like a piggy in mud. I kept checking on her while we were making dinner and stuff. Suddenly much to my terror, I saw her chew awkwardly, and I just knew. Mom's know these things...so I ran over to pull the foot out of her mouth, and she swallowed. I totally beat myself up. We contemplated what to do and at 9 pm on Saturday night decided to take her to the emergency vet, and see if they could get it out rather than wait to see our vet on Monday since that might be too late.
We took her over and sure enough, an xray later they saw the purple, 1.5x2 inch, rubbery, plastic hand hanging out in her tummy. So they gave her meds to get her to throw it up. Voila--problem solved. Not. She got her food up, but no hand. We had the three more options. We weren't the least bit comfortable with the first two, or even the third really. But the third option was the only definitive, surefire way to get that hand out before it caused an obstruction in her intestines or on the way to them. There was no way she'd pass this sucker, and obstructions are way more dangerous and complicated. I was a true basketcase. I did not plan on going to the puppy hospital and leaving my baby there. Casey and I got home around midnight, and they were planning surgery for 1 am and a phone to call us by 3 am for the news. By 3:45 am and no call or much sleep, I called in a panic. They had just taken her back to surgery and would call when she was done. I cried the whole night cause I blamed myself. If it's this hard (emotionally) to have a puppy, I convinced myself I would be a terrible mother. The doctors don't know her, she doesn't know them, Brooks doesn't understand, she doesn't even understand, they had to pull her to the back she was so scared, bulldogs don't do well with anesthesia, recovery complications, and on and on and on.
They called at 6 am saying they got the hand, in one piece of course, as bulldogs don't chew a whole lot, and that she was now resting comfortably. And they'd have to keep her until Monday morning. Seriously? What the eff? Out of surgery was the biggest relief ever, but we wanted to see our little girl. Brooks did okay with all the attention, and I called multiple times during the day just to check on her, but we got an update from her doctor Sunday night that if she still couldn't eat by Monday morning they'd have to keep her a whole nother day. What! No. Way. In the grand scheme of things, despite missing her, I'd rather have her under their watch during this time than at home where we couldn't provide her with any emergency care if needed. As a mom, you want to be the one to take care of your little ones though. Harder on me than her, I'm sure.
Here's Brooks: super cute and kinda bored without her sister. Look at those feet!!
I prayed hard, hard, hard some more and begged for prayers from everyone I knew who would understand. These girls are not just my puppies, they are my babies. After a sleepless night by Brooks (finally realizing her buddy was really gone) and consequently, a sleepless night for us, on Monday morning at 6 am, we got the call that she ate with a vengeance (typical Boone). YAY! My heart lit up, and we took Brooks to pick Boone up at 7 am.
Here they are cuddling as soon as they both got back in the car to go home.
Happy to be back together with kisses.
The toughest part is keeping them from playing too much. This breaks my heart! They love to play and rumble, and we have to wait 2 whole weeks. Ahhhhh! Boone has 3 layers of internal sutures and 1 layer of staples externally. We just have to keep her tied together! I just want them to be able to play, play, play. In the meantime, we're eating a combo of boiled chicken, white rice, and now the addition of puppy food. Talk about happy campers. We're letting Brooks enjoy the people food too. She's become quite the eater. I think she's going to boycott puppy food when we go back to solely that.
Here's Boone bundled up, sleeping off another dose of pain meds and doing well!
Don't you just want to squeeze that face?
I love them both so so much. They are both happier to be back together and home. And so are we.
I won't even tell you the cost of puppy surgery and hospital stay...my girls are worth it though. I'd do it again in a heartbeat for healthy pups. In the meantime, we've inventoried their toy selection and trimmed and trashed a few. Bummer.
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