Thorn

Over the past month Vincent and I have been worried about our sweet dog. There were a few things that concerned us that she was doing. First she could not seem to even walk a couple of miles without becoming extremely winded, 2nd her appetite had majorly decreased, and 3rd she was not wanting to be pet as much. At first we thought maybe it was because of old age. She is 10 and dobermans have a life span of 10-12 years but when she was not as interested in us petting her and her appetite decreased so much we took her to the vet. The doctor found that she had a huge uterus filled with pus. She had never been fixed because Vincent had thought he was going to breed her. The doctor told us that she needed to have surgery that day or there was a risk her uterus could rupture and kill her. Before the test the doctor did an EKG and Thorn was having some issues with her heart. The doctor thought maybe that was due to her majorly increased white blood cell count (I think it was supposed to be around 10,000 and Thorn's was 33,000). She had to stay overnight so the doctor could monitor her and then we got her home the next day. She initially seemed OK, for just just having surgery. However, 2 days post surgery she started panting and becoming extremely anxious. I thought the pain meds were not enough so I called and got them to up the dose. She had a hysterectomy (most women after this surgery get a huge amount of pain meds) and all our little baby got was 1 pill everyday and it was only like taking an advil. Crazy!!! Anyhow the pain was not the problem. In the middle of the night Thorn woke Vincent up and he she was very nervous. She was panting and not able to sit down. He felt her chest and he said her heartbeat was so fast you could not even count it. The next day she went back to the doctor and Vincent asked them to do another EKG. They did and amazingly the doctor did not even know how to read it. Luckily I have a super smart husband who read the EKG and told the doctor he was wrong. Of course not in a mean way but he was just protecting his dog and he does have to look at a lot of heart rythms for a living. The doctor told Vincent Thorn was in a certain type of rythm and he wanted to take her back and give her Atropine (which increased your heart rate). Vincent looked at the strip and noticed her heart beat was going super fast and thought to himself if he gives her that it will increase her heart so much it will kill her so he said no and that he wanted to put her on meds to slow her heart. He asked the doctor to put her on 2 different meds and the doctor agreed (which I am sure that he hated being wrong) and now our beautiful dog is doing much better. Her heart is still not normal but at least the meds are controlling her rythm and she is comfortable. She is even going on small walks with Vincent, Wyatt, and I. I have not cryed or felt as sad about anything since my mom got diagnosed with cancer. Of course I was much more worried and sad for my mom but Thorn, in our family, is almost human. She makes us so happy and she makes Wyatt happy. That entire month has made us appreciate every day we have with her. She is just so special and such a great animal. For those of you who have seen her but not met her I know you would think differently and for those who do not like animals (which is super crazy to me) I know you do not understand. For those of us who love our pets and have had an extremely sick pet I know you probably know exactly what I am talking about. I will apologize about the first picture. I put that picture on there without being able to see it very well and it is super blurry. In fact it looks as if Thorn does not have a head but she still does. This was one of her first hikes about 3 weeks after surgery.