Dealing with a Sick Pet: Our dog Chia

Chia-webDealing with a sick pet is the WORST isn’t it? Our dog Chia has been having some issues lately. She likes to play fetch, like is a bit of an understatement, she is obsessed with it. But we noticed the other day that she cried when she tried to pick up a tennis ball. On further inspection, we could see nothing wrong, except it hurt her to open her mouth beyond a tiny bit. Of course it was a Friday night when we noticed it. We thought she maybe strained a muscle and waited until Monday morning to see if she needed to go to the vet.

Monday morning came and it was clear she was not getting better. A trip to the vet revealed that she had inflammation in the muscles that open her jaw. She was prescribed an anti-inflammatory and we thought that was that. She was feeling better after two days and started fetching apples.

Oh I did mention that she is obsessed with fetch right?

This time of year the old apple trees that are on the edge of the woods are dropping apples. Chia learned years ago that apples are a lot like a ball and make for a sweet game of fetch. When everyone gets tired of throwing it for her, it is a tasty treat. She will eat the whole thing, I’m sure she thinks if it is good enough for the horses it is good enough for her too.

So after a few days of recovery she was back to fetching apples. The problem is that brought back the inflammation worse than before, and of course this time it was a Friday night before a holiday weekend. As we waited for Tuesday to bring her back to the vet her conditioned worsened. It started affecting her eye, it was dripping and the third eyelid was red and swollen. She wasn’t her usual happy self; she had a pained look on her sweet face. We became more concerned; was this part of the same problem or was this something else and more serious? We all go through this when dealing with a sick pet, don’t we?  We didn’t think it warranted going to an emergency vet, so we waited, hoping we were doing the right thing. Each day we watched our dog get a little worse looking, in the back of our minds we worried she might not make it but neither Dean nor I voiced this to each other. By Monday morning both eyes were affected and we weren’t sure she could see.

More waiting until the vet opened for office hours that afternoon.

Finally I brought her to the vet, more waiting for our turn to see the vet.

Finally it was our turn and the vet thoroughly examines Chia once again. Then I got scolded a little for letting her chew on apples. She increased her meds and said no more chewing on apples or anything hard. So our dog is home again. With proper rest (that will be the hard part) and treatment she will be fine soon. Hopefully we will have many more years together with our furry happy friend.

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