[Gpdd] Health: Daisy had a bladderstone :(

[Mieke Staaks]

Hi all,

It's been a while since I've written, ans wanted to check in with a 'Hi we
are still around and reading everyday, and all's well' email.
But unfortunately we found out our Daisy was ill. We noticed her weight
dropped 200 grammes in only a month, and she was wet underneath. So I
suspected cystitis. We tried her on one of Peter gurney's remedies of
barley water. But after a few days it was clear to me that wasn't helping
enough.
So of to the vet it was. She confirmed my theory of Daisy having cystitis,
but she was also doubting a bit if maybe she had a bladder stone, as she
thought she could feel something in the bladder area..
We tried antibiotics and a painkiller for almost a week, but Daisy was not
really improving.

So back to the vet to see if she did indeed have a bladderstone. This vet
gave the same diagnosis: cystitis and she could feel something in her
bladder. So I came back in the next day (this was last friday) to have her
x-rayed (I had the last appointment the day before) and see if she really
had a dreaded stone.
So I got a call later that day sayong she could see 2 things on the x-ray.
2 things? I did not like that...
first thing was she indeed had a bladder stone, and it was to big to flush
it out.
The second thing was that she had a huge amount of something in her
tummy... it looked like have her belly cavity, and the vet suspected a huge
ovarian cyst... She had to puncture these first before she would do an
operation to get the stone out. As it took up so much space, it would very
likely be in the way for the removal of the stone. We agreed to get the
liquid out of the ovarian cyst and they have the vet remove the stone.

After some time I got a call again, the operation went well, the stone was
removed (and about 1 cm diameter). And she did not find an ovarian cyst.
When puncturing all that came out was air... apparently the huge bubble
that showed up on the x-ray was air. The theory was that it was in her
appendix that contained all the air, and as she was in pain, she inhaled a
lot of air... (Anyone ever heard of this?)
However, she was having a lot of problems recovering and waking up, she
started bleeding from her bladder, and it was not getting less so far....
She could put Daisy under again and see if she could fix it, but she was
very hesitant to do that, as giving her that extra aneastathic the vet was
afraid would give Daisy that last push to cross the bridge...
So she suggested we wait for the body to fix this...
I asked if I could come and see her... and a little bit later I was there.

Daisy was not looking good, cramping a lot because of the pain (she did
have painkiller of course, but she was obviously still in a lot of pain)
and they lower half was all bloody...
After about an hour the cramping became less, and the bloodflow seemed to
almost halt. After a while her temperature was getting back to normal, so
the heating in her intensive care unit was turned off.
About an hour later, she seemed to have improved even more, and she came
more alert, and at some point I think she even tried to nibble the fleece
she was on. This is a typical thing Daisy would so in a healthy state. She
also moved around a bit more.
At that point I spend some hours watching her and they said I could go
home, eat something and then get back in 2 hours to pick her up, if she
seemed good enough.
An luckily we were allowed to take her home! At that time it was 7 in the
evening. So it was a pretty tiring day for me.

I will start another mail to tell you how she is doing so far.

Mieke

-- 
"Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room"
Mary Schmich, 1997
(Source: http://256.com/gray/quotes/schmich.html)