Fast Fiction

Our little Becky is experiencing some sort of massive allergic reaction. As a result of this, she’s all swelled up. Most notably her ears are swollen. I don’t mean the ear canals, I mean those floppy fur covered things - they’re thick and heavy and full of fluid.

This started early yesterday morning. She wasn’t upstairs outside the bathroom door when I got out of the shower and I called for her and she came up, she didn’t seem like herself. She made a couple of passes at the bed as if she was going to jump up (she has to get a running start), she gave up. I knelt down to check her out and pet her and immediately felt her huge eats and hot face.

I got dressed and took her right to the vet (well outside for her morning business first). After a rather long wait Dr. Jimerson over at Gateway Animal Hospital saw her and said that it was some sort of systemic allergic reaction. We don’t know what she’s allergic to, but he wanted to keep her for the day to run some tests and give her a few shots. (They also trimmed her nails and gave her a bath.) She weighed a full five pounds more than she did last summer and the doctor said it was probably all water. Now five pounds on me is uncomfortable, I can’t imagine what it’s like for a dog that usually weighs thirty pounds.

Now she’s got three different prescriptions, one for her eyes, one antibiotic for any lingering infection and a steroid to reduce her inflammation.

This morning she didn’t seem much better, her ears though better yesterday after The Man picked her up at the vet were almost back to normal but this morning they were thick and full of fluid again.

The good thing is that she’s in good spirits. She’s still peppy and responsive, eating her food as normal but drinking lots (and peeing lots).

I called the vet and he said to give the drugs more time to work. They also took some blood samples and won’t have results until tomorrow. So for now we’ll just wait and keep an eye on her.