We had a lovely Christmas right up until 10 PM that night. The day was spent with family in Caledon , stopping off In Mississauga to pick up Dan's Dad, his wife and his care-giver. We all had a wonderful time and were happy to have 4 generations of Balych guys in attendance. I took a photo and will post it at some later date.
We got home to Brighton around 9PM after a long day on the road and celebrating with the family. By 10 it was obvious that Paddy was in extreme distress. Our Vet (bless her) got dressed and came to the house on Christmas night. She immediately sent us to the Emergency Pet Hospital in Kingston for Paddy to have surgery on her twisted stomach (hence the name of this post). I can joke about it now that she is home, shaved and scarred but alive. She would have died had she not had the surgery.
The people at the pet hospital were wonderful...stablizing her to make sure she could withstand the surgery and she got the best post operative care. They even took to calling her Sweet Paddy by the next day...That dog can win anybody's heart.
Paddy is the one on the right in the above picture. See all that lovely hair on her belly? It's gone now!
Anyway she is home, on drugs but they will end today and is sleeping a good deal of the time. No strenuous exercise or long walks (it's too cold anyway) and no dancing around or jumping on things or people. Her diet is restricted to soft food for the time being...she is missing her doggie cookies but if that is the worst she has to suffer then she will have to cope.
We are just grateful that she is still with us. The name of what she had is gastric dilatation-volvulus which was followed by a rotation of her stomach. It is not uncommon, especially in large deep chested dogs and unless caught, fatal. In the course of her surgery they tacked her stomach to her abdominal wall so at least it will not rotate again. This tacking is sometimes done when a dog is being spayed and what a good idea...obviously it was not done on Paddy 9 years ago.
It was an emotional and tiring Day and Christmas 2011 will be remembered for a long time as the day the spent primarily on the 401 until 3AM on Boxing Day morning! We picked her up on Dec 27 and are very grateful to have her home with us.
Let's hope New Year's Day is somewhat less eventful!
