Poorly Pups

This week was a real rollercoaster of emotions. It started of on a high with the BBC contacting me and ended on a low with an emergency trip to the vet.

If you follow me on Social Media you’ll know that we’ve had a good few trips to the vets over the last month or so. It seemed like one dog got well and the other got sick. Both Rocket-dog and Puggly are rescue dogs and to be honest they’ve been in great health up until recently. It all started when Rocket had two lumps removed, he recovered very quickly but a couple of weeks later both he and Puggly had gastritis and pancreatitis. They both had stays in The Well Pet Hospital and came home well and happy again.

On Friday I was in the middle of a zoom meeting and Rocket-dog got sick. I didn’t think too much of it because he gets sick now and again. He seemed fine until about half an hour later when he started leaning and staggering. I honestly thought he was having a stroke. The weirdest thing was he looked so well, he was wagging his tail and looked happy but he couldn’t stand upright. I turned into a blubbering wreck and sat on the chair cuddling him and crying into his head. It all happened so suddenly.

Andy drove us to the vets and all the way there I thought it was going to be the day we said goodbye to our boy. I carried him into Darren the vet, who told me he would check him over and let me know what he thought. On a positive Darren explained that dogs don’t have strokes in the same way that people do and he told me that he seemed very alert which was a good sign.

Darren phoned me to keep me updated, which meant the world to me. He told me he thought it was Vestibular Syndrome, which I’ve never heard of before. So this link might be worth a read for any other pet owners, in case your dog or cat has similar symptoms. By the afternoon Rocket-dog was almost back to his normal self, he’d been given meds and was in the best place.

We were able to pick him up the next day and I’m amazed at how well he is. He’s flying around the place like nothing ever happened. Darren and Susie tell me this may happen again but just to keep him calm and quiet if it does, it seems to be quite common in older dogs. I’m so grateful to all at The Well Pet Hospital, if you are in Sligo I would highly recommend them and I wouldn’t bring my dogs anywhere else. They are also the only vet in Sligo dedicated to pets.

So that was my week. It also taught me that I’m not quite as independent as I thought I was. Andy and Jono were both fantastic and very calm, while I just went to pieces. I’m hoping both dogs stay well and that as much as I like the vets I don’t want to see them again for a while.