Riley Woke Us Up
It was February 12th and very early in the morning. Riley, our five year old Shih Tzu doggie, just kept vomiting. We gave her a Milk Bone Biscuit thinking maybe it would settle her tummy, but it didn’t and she didn’t stop getting sick until her tummy was empty. By then it was morning and Bill called Ridgeview Animal Hospital that also kept regular non emergency hours, too. They had to take X-Rays. Two of the pictures show what they saw.
We had called Ridgeview Animal Hospital when our older dog kept dry heaving. It had been an Emergency service at the Ridgeview Animal Hospital in Omaha. We liked the vet and found her knowledgeable. We had taken Bentley to a Vet near our old home and the vet told us they could do an “Elderly Dog“ work up on Bentley but would probably not find what was wrong. We knew he had had a heart murmur since he was a puppy. He occasionally have a dry hack but would quickly stop. Dr Jennifer Knope-Simpson, known there as “Dr. K” She prescribed a heart med for Bentley and he had improved and was friskier than he had been in a long time.
The animal hospital had high ratings on line and we found them to warrant the high rating. Dr. Paul Schmid performed the surgery on Riley. The Dr asked if we recognized the object in Riley’s X-Ray, but we had never seen it before. It looked something like a valve you would use to blow up an air mattress. What was it? Where did she find it? And why would she swallow it?
Two Options
The Dr. said she could try to scope it out, but if it was too big and she could not get it out they would have to do surgery and it would cost us double; and she would still need the surgery. We opted for the surgery. We could pick her up after the surgery. They also reassured us; not to worry about the snow storm if it got worse out and we couldn’t get back to pick Riley up, she would be cared for. The hospital did not have overnight care and we would have to take her to an Emergy Care if we didn’t want to keep an eye on her for the night at home. We were so tired and sleepy, we thought Riley would have the best care at the Urgent Care Clinic. The hospital arranged for her care at the Emergency Care Clinic. We picked a groggy Riley up at the hospital. They had her all bundled up in a blanket for the cold, snowy trip to Emergy Care. The staff said they had all wanted to take turns holding Riley; she was so good and they were so loving to her.
Urgent Care took good care of Riley through the night. They gave her care we couldn’t have given her at home. We were so anxious to get her home.
At home Riley was having some bowel problems, so we went back to Dr. K who gave Riley some sort of paste for her tummy issues. Riley had quite the medication schedule. Bill had her schedule all written out and took care of it. She was such a good patient! Bill had no problems at all with her taking her paste or other medicines. Her bowel issue went away. The vet said that was normal after surgery. Then the problem became trying to keep her still and not letting her jump on the couch or up on Bill in the recliner. First thing when we got her home “the Cone of Shame” as it is sometimes called came off. It wasn’t easy to get off. We couldn’t even pet her with it on. The vet had said as long as we were watching her close we could remove the “Cone”. We put a little t-shirt on her so she would not bother her incision. We later ordered an after surgery pink “onesie” for her from Amazon to protect her belly. It had 15 little snaps down the back. When we took her for her after surgery check up a week later she was healed! She could return to her daily activities! One of the technicians had put her little pink outfit on backwards. The hole for her head is on her tail end. You can see it in the photos. We had to laugh, but Riley didn’t care! She was happy to be home again. We still wonder if someone through the unidentified object into the fenced back yard or did it come in some organic top soil I added to the garden? I guess we will never know.
Riley is back to running loops around the couch and as you can see in the pictures she even jumps over her brother, Bentley!
Riley Before Surgery
Riley After Surgery
