Rough Start....

The new year began with a jolt of reality...both financially and emotionally.

We traveled for a full 2 weeks for the holidays. A few days before Christmas, we noticed a few spots on our doggie boo's belly. He had been wrestling with my sister's dog a lot so we assumed that they were just bruises. He didn't seem to be hurt when they were touched and he had allergies before on his skin....but he didn't seem to be itching them. I looked a few things up on the internet but saw that terriers had a lot of skin allergies so I just moved on.

When we returned home (finally), we shaved Bo and noticed that he now had splotches all over him....like small freckles all over this skin. That was it....we didn't see any other changes in him....appetite, behavior, anything. Just the same, we agreed to take him to the vet anyways to make sure nothing major was wrong.

We were very lucky that we got him in when we did.

Josh took him to the vet....and the vet was puzzled. She did a very detailed exam....went to speak to another vet and then came back in and said we were going to take some blood. After the blood test came a fecal exam....and then we waited. At this point, we were at the point that we could hear the vets conferring outside the door. After that, the vet came back in and said that we needed to go to the emergency vet facility in Richmond as soon as possible. We asked what was wrong and his bloodwork had come back irregular - he had 6000 platelets....when he was supposed to have over 150,000.

Needless to say, we freaked out. We jumped in the car and drove very quickly to Carytown...where we were immediately seen in a room. They did an additional round of blood tests....and the emergency vet came in. We had already started crying, wondering if we were going to lose the dog that had worked his way into our hearts and lives so quickly. They vet told us that he had to be placed on an extremely strong dose of steroids, antibiotics and needed to stay there at least overnight, if not longer. The steroids would start fighting his immune system, which was apparently killing his platelets...meaning, he could bleed out at any time. She didn't know what was causing it....it was one of 3 things, just a freak one-time incident, a disease passed by a tick (which is what an antibiotics were for) or CANCER. Our dog....our puppy.... we made the choice to leave him there for a few days and sobbed the whole way home.

The next week was hell. We drove up to see him whenever we could....and since he didn't feel sick, he was confused as to why he couldn't come home. 5 days of testing his blood....and there were no changes....at all...he didn't appear to be responding to the treatment, which meant that at some point, financially, we had to make the choice to take him home. It was terrible....being home without him....seeing his toys around, an empty bed....we kept thinking he was home. I started carrying a rosary with me in the car, we asked friends to pray for him....and we continued to cry from not knowing what was going to happen.

On the Saturday after we admitted him (and thousands of dollars later), we decided to bring him home. Luckily, the last blood test he got, there was a light improvement. Since he came home, he's been sleeping a lot, shaking and taking a lot of meds. He's exhausted all the time, has trouble getting on the furniture...and peeing ALL THE TIME.

But he's home. And that's what's important. The last time I took him to the vet, his blood count is back to normal Now we are onto the weaning part of his meds....which means more shaking and peeing..... but he's home.

We're still scared as to what's going to happen....honestly, I feel like things won't be okay until we get to a few weeks from now....when most of his meds are done.

It's been a rough few weeks. Not at all a good start to the new year.

We are really hoping it's going to get better.