Night at the Vet's

Penny hasn't been feeling so good. She's had diarrhea since Tuesday and she started vomiting on Thursday. I fasted her a day but she still had diarrhea. So, on Friday, I took her in to Rainer Vet. Rick and I walked with her to get urine samples and we already had a little bit of what she had vomited up.

Come to find out, Rainier Vet had just started taking appointments rather than being the world's greatest walk in clinic. But they made room for an appointment for Penny at 11:30. Penny was acting funny after we left so I let her walk in the parking lot. She had what I call projectile diarrhea. I gathered a sample there. Then, we drove around on errands until 11, when we headed to the vet office. Got caught in Blue Angels traffic, but got there around 11:35.

At the appointment, Dr. Heino took her temperature, which was normal, palpitated her tummy, which caused discomfort but not great pain, and checked her hydration. Penny lay on the floor, not even rolling her eyes to keep up with the conversation. Dr. Heino wanted to take her for a few hours to run an x ray to check for obstruction and to rehydrate her. I left, feeling forlorn and that I was abandoning my little girl to the great medical establishment.

I called as requested between 4 and 4:30. Dr. Heino wanted to keep her overnight to keep giving her fluids and keep an eye on her.

I started calling about 8:30 to see if she was all right. I kept getting the answering machine. At 9:00, I talked to the receptionist, who said she'd have Dr. Heino call me back. At 11, I called again. After some scurrying around and other noises, she came back to the phone to say Penny could be home.

When I got her, I also got 3 different medications to give her, along with instructions to feed her a bland diet of white rice and turkey and cottage cheese. I also am to limit her water to a few seconds of drinking at a time.

And that's where we are. I just took her out for her morning constitutional, fed her, gave her a little water, and now she's sleeping. I will drop her off at Rick's when I have an appointment this morning.

I am sure she is on the mend.