update on Blue

for those of you who haven't heard, blue got bit by a snake my first day up at camp. justin and eric were repairing the mountain bikes while i checked on cabins and other stuff. i threw a stick into a brush pile in the woods, and blue chased it. he stayed over there a while, and i just figured he was playing with the sticks, but i guess he was trying to play with a snake. he yelped, and came hopping out of the pile. we figured he had hurt his leg somehow and didn't think much of it until he swelled up pretty bad. within a few hours after the bite, his leg was as big around as my wrist.

we had originally thought that it was a copperhead since you see them all the time up there and we didn't hear a rattle. but as big as the bite was, and how adversely it affected him, i'm thinking it could have been a rattler that thought he was food (and wouldn't have rattled if that was the case).

so i took him to the emergency vet on saturday the 3rd, the day he got bit. i picked him up from the vet on monday after the swelling had gone down. he was pretty out of it from the bite and his medication. he started acting really strange on wednesday and got really aggressive with me. usually he'll nip at you when he's scared, but he was trying to bite hard. he hadn't eaten anything and wouldn't drink out of his water bowl (he drank out of the lake and the creek), so i took him back to the vet that friday. the vet assumed that it was his antibiotic bothering his stomach and that we could take him off of it and send him home. he did some blood work to make sure that his organs hadn't been affected, and unfortunately, they had. his numbers were off the charts, basically his kidneys weren't working at all.

they hooked him up on an IV and started diuresis, which basically means pumping him with an insane amount of fluids (like 3 liters a day) to flush out his kidneys and get them functioning again. if he has at least 25% function he can live a full life. so they started flushing last friday and checked his blood every few days. i went to see him last monday and was pretty worried. the vet and i had had the "when to put him down" talk. it was still too early, but because we didn't know how well this treatment would work, it was something i had to consider. with kidneys, the only way to know for sure if they're functioning is the bloodwork or a biopsy (which is impractical). the problem with the bloodwork method is the diuresis will naturally lower his numbers, and there's no way of knowing how much his kidneys are doing. my mom brought eric up to camp that day, so i had her go with me in case i'd have to make a decision. his numbers were better, and we decided to wait 2 days to check him again. the vet felt like he had hit rock bottom and he could only get better.

every few days his numbers got better, and by the time i went to see him this past thursday he was feeling a lot better. i took whatever i could find from camp that he would find appetizing and tried to get him to eat any way possible. he still refused to eat anything, including this prescription food that's "irresistible to dogs." they had been force feeding him, so he was finally getting more nourishment than the IV alone. he'd lost a lot of weight though.

they called saturday and said his numbers were much better and that it was time to send him home. so that's where we are today. home in athens. blue's feeling a lot better and my mom's grilled chicken was what it took to get him eating (he stole the rest of mine off my plate, and for once i didn’t scold him). i've been giving him the prescription food mixed with his dog chow, and he's gotten some chicken too. he's handled it pretty well, so hopefully that means that his stomach ulcer is better (a result of kidney failure) and kidneys are working now.

i'll take him back to the vet some time next week to do more blood work. if his numbers are better or back to normal, then he'll make a full recovery. if they aren't better, then... well, his kidneys aren't working and you know what that means.

i felt kinda silly asking people to pray for my dog, but then i thought about it and decided nothing was too big or small for God. thanks to everyone for all the prayers and concern. he's doing a lot better, and the more he eats, the more energy he's getting. he's lost 6 pounds, so we're still a long way from playing frisbee like we used to, but he's definitely improving. i hope that means his kidney's are functioning properly.