Gingerbean

You might be wondering what the dogs were up to while I was working in the foyer... Goyle was doing this:

That's a chair that usually resides in the living room. But every once in awhile, Goyle decides I'm not paying enough attention to him & starts dragging it around. On Friday, he dragged it down the hall, into the bedroom, onto the bed, and then started barking at it until I showed up to see his handy work. It sort of looks like Ginger was in on the trouble but I assure you, she was not. She was being quiet on the couch... but still managing to get into trouble.

Saturday I woke up to a whining puppy at the back door. When I hauled ass out of bed to let her out, I found that she'd already been at the back door a few times... throwing up. Uh oh. Out she went & stayed until I could clean up the floor and then coax her back in. Ginger is a strange kind of dog who insists on going outside to vomit & doesn't want to come back in until she's sure she won't get sick in the house. It's kinda nice but also kind of sad when it's cold & rainy. Plus, I'm use to projectile-vomit-in-bed Goyle so a dog who at least has the decency to puke on linoleum totally wins. Once back inside, Ginger was looking like this:

"Whoa, Mommy. I'm not feeling so well."

Awwwww. I gave her some snuggles and belly rubs and hugs and stayed on the couch with her for awhile. Then I got up to make myself some food. A few minutes into frying up some sausage & eggs, who should appear at my feet? One happy tailed Ginger wondering if any sausage had managed to escape to the floor. Ahhh, all better. Must have just needed to expel some bad stuff, right? She was totally normal the rest of the day.

But on Sunday it was back to yuck. Second verse, same as the first. She was sick a few times in the middle of the night but no quick recovery this time. She just laid around all day and looked sad. Sunday night I slept with the lights on so that I would wake up faster if she needed anything but she pretty much slept thru the night. But she still wasn't better and had added shaking & licking air to her list of symptoms... so Monday morning, I thought, better safe than sorry & called the vet.

The vet checked her out but couldn't find any obvious signs of anything sinister (obstructions, lumps, etc.)... so she gave Ginger some IV fluids to rehydrate her & sent us home with an order for a bland diet and daily pepsid.

OK, cool. Been down the virus road before. Plus, both her & Goyle love the bland diet... rice with boiled hamburger. They act like its the best thing ever. Weirdos. Oh man, she was instantly perkier. She even started playing a bit & gobbled up her dinner. Woohoo. All better, right? RIGHT? No.

"Whoa, Mommy. I'm not feeling so well."

She threw up all night. And all the next day. And didn't want to eat. And barely touched her bland diet awesomeness. And the next morning, I called the vet again. "Take her to the ER and we'll order bloodwork & x-rays." Oh. Yay.

I dropped her off and got a surprisingly reasonable estimate for some tests and 3 days of hospitalization with IV fluids & anti-nausea injections. Of course, this was the best case scenario and you can see how that has worked out so far in this story. About an hour later, my vet calls to talk about her X-rays. "No noticeable foreign objects but comparing it to her X-ray from September (when she had Kennel Cough), her liver is swollen & there may be a large mass constricting the stomach, blah, blah, blah... abdominal ultrasound?" Oy. OK, go for it. About an hour later... "Uh. This is crazytown. She has a large mass on her liver *and* a foreign object obstructing her intestine." OK, she didn't say that first part... but she implied it. Unfortunately, she did really say the last part.

Hurray! No. My poor sweet Gingerbean! Surgery was obviously necessary for the obstruction, which was the immediate problem. But the liver mass complicated it all because that shiz will cause a problem later down the line. It was recommended that they do it all at once. This involves a specialist surgeon & mo' money & applying for fancy low-interest health care credit lines. OVERWHELMED <--- Me.

I know there are people out there who think it is insane to spend thousands of dollars on health care for your pet. I am not one of these people. I have met some of those people, they are fine people... a lot of times they have children. Which can be quite costly themselves, I hear. What I'm saying is: life choices. My dogs are my children. So....

Ginger got her surgery & is recovering. No more obstruction, no more liver mass. A biopsy will be done & we will go from there. And now I know that (probably) on Friday night, while I was working on drywall & Goyle was dragging chairs around, Ginger was being quiet on the couch. Chewing off large chunks of a Humunga Stache toy and swallowing them whole. (sigh) Kids these days.