It's been a rough twenty-four hours.
Yesterday I had to take Jackie to the vet because she somehow scratched her eye. I originally thought she had a tiny bit of soap in her eye as a result of a bath I gave her a few days ago, but her eye never got better, and so I took her to the vet to have it checked out.
It turns out she has a small ulcer, probably due to her scratching at her eye because the soap irritated it so. I have to give her eye drops four times a day, but the doctor said it should heal up fine.
But, Angel might be in more serious trouble.
Yesterday we had a barbecue with some of our family, and all day Angel seemed to be fine. In fact I remember when I took Jackie to the doctor I saw Angel, and he was acting like his old self.
Then sometime during the party he started acting odd. We thought it was because there were a lot of people in the house, and he was just afraid. (He has not been around that many people at one time before.) But after everyone left he still acted a little skittish, and wanted to stay outside.
Angel likes to be inside, so that in itself was weird, but when I reached down to pet him, and pressed lightly at the base of his tail, he snapped at me. In fact, if I tried to touch him at all beyond his ribcage back he would try to stop me by lightly grabbing my hand in his mouth.
I took him to the emergency animal hospital last night around 8pm, but it was going to be a very long wait, and when I took Angel out of his crate and tried to duplicate what happened at our house, he was fine. Hoping he was now OK, I took him home. Unfortunately, he again tried to bite me when I grabbed his hind quarters. So, this morning I took him to our vet, and that is where he is right now.
The doctor ran his thumbs along Angel's spine, and Angel seemed to be fine until he reached a spot where Angel sort of jumped a little. The doctor asked if Angel liked to jump, and I said no, that the only time Angel jumps is when he jumps off of the couch. Otherwise, his four little feet stay firmly attached to terra firma.
Angel walks fine, and even runs. He eats, goes potty, and in every other way seems to be OK, but for some reason he is tender in his hind end. The doctor noticed that his belly is "tense", and mentioned pancreatitis, but after finding the spot on his back that made Angel jump, the doctor was more inclined to believe Angel has a back injury of some kind.
The doctor said that Angel could have a degenerative disc problem, (like father like son!,) but he also said Angel could have hurt himself somehow. He ordered a couple of x-rays for Papa, and so I had to leave my boy at the vet's for most of today. They called a while ago and asked if I could come pick Angel at 2:40 this afternoon. I asked the receptionist if she could tell me anything about his condition, but she said I would have to talk to the doctor when I come in. She did say, however, that she could tell me they would be sending Papa home with me, and that there is some medication he will need to take. She said also that the doctor wants me to keep him quiet for the next three weeks, and then bring him back for a follow-up at that time.
I think that is good news. I think Papa some how hurt himself during the party, or that one of our guests may have inadvertently hurt him.
Either way, I don't care, just as long as Papa is OK.
Posted by Jeff at January 29, 2007 12:25 PM