insurance

What a tough few days it's been in this house. On Monday morning I went downstairs to discover that Neka had been throwing up. Now, it has to be said that this is certainly far from an unusual occurrence. Our dogs vomit on an unfortunately regular basis - they drink too much water too fast, up it comes - they've been running around playing and swallow a load of fur, up it comes - swallowed a bit of chewed up stick, up it comes - ate their dinner too fast, up it comes (and then disappears back down again just as quickly). So throwing up in itself never worries me. I cleaned up and then took Neka out for her morning ablutions.

Normal wee, normal poo - normal, normal, normal. Then as we were strolling down the park she started to vomit again and began to look distinctly unwell. Then she lay on the frosty grass and didn't want to get up (Does that sound familiar to long-time readers? I wasn't panicking like I was this night, but it's always a worry when Neka chooses to lay still.)

I got her into the house and took Maija & Keskiyo out and by the time I had finished with them Neka's condition had deteriorated already and she was clearly in some discomfort. Discomfort that continued to worsen over the course of the next hour until she was very clearly in a lot of pain - panting, the pupils of her eyes were dilated and she had started to hunch her back.

I phoned the vet & told them I was on my way and within an hour Neka was in hospital on a drip with a temperature of over 104ºF (40ºC). Her condition was so unstable that they didn't want to do an xray to see whether she had a blockage because of the strain even a small amount of sedation would put on her organs. They took a blood sample and sent it to the lab for urgent results and gave her some pain relief and then we started waiting.

Our vet surgery is a large, busy hospital in Exeter and so when there is something about they are always one of the first to hear about it. That weekend they had no fewer than 3 dogs in intensive care with vomiting, diarrhea and pancreatitis of varying severity and danger. Although Neka's symptoms were slightly different, they suspected that she was victim number 4 and started to treat her for that and gastroenteritis.

Two days later, and I've just brought her home. She was almost as excited to see me as I was to see her! Each day when they told me she would have to stay overnight, I desperately wanted to go and see her but managed to control myself. It might make us feel better to see for ourselves that she's ok, but I know that if she saw us and then we left without her it would be much worse for her. So we stayed tough and when I called three times each day I took the staff's word that she was doing well.

She's still not completely back to her old self - far from it.















It frightens me to think how ill she has been. However I'm hopeful she'll recover pretty quickly now that she's back home. We have 3 different drugs to give her for the rest of the week; one anti-sickness tablet and two different kinds of antibiotic. And she's back to see her friend the vet on the weekend.

We still don't know if she has pancreatitis; it will take a couple of days to get the results of the second lot of blood tests. And we still don't know - and probably will never know - what caused the problem in the first place. But if several dogs have had the same thing, then that implies there is a strange bug around that attacks particular organs. Luckily, everyone else in the house has been absolutely fine.

Maija was at work with Jay when Neka came home, but she had a very warm welcome from Keskiyo.
















Neka had a long drink then settled down in her favorite spot for a snooze. For the first hour Keskiyo just lay about a foot away watching her. It was quite sweet to see him be so attentive. Usually when he's focused on the girls it's not with attention so much as with intention.

Here's Neka a couple of weeks ago, her usual bouncy self. Hopefully we'll see some more of that before very long.



















And the cost of Neka's good health? Priceless, you might say. Except that we can, of course, identify a very precise price in the form of vet bills. This episode - £400. Actually, I thought that was pretty good, considering 3 days, 2 nights, 2 blood tests, and a load of drugs. After all, if her ailment had been caused by her swallowing something she shouldn't that had caused a blockage (as I first feared), then there would have been xrays and surgery as well. That would likely have pushed the price into 4 figures.

Ask around and you'll get lots of stories about why animal insurance is a good idea. This is just one of them.

So, is Neka insured? Er, no. But the others are, and after this Neka will be too because if she can contract a debilitating mystery illness out of the blue, then surely anyone can, and absolutely anything is possible.