My Baby Frankenstein...

Those who know me know how dear my baby Frankie is to my heart. Although the Dog Whisperer might tell me I am wrong in doing so, Frankie has always and will always continue to be like a child to me. So when he is in pain, so is momma :(

Over the past 5 years of Frankie's life, I cannot count how many times we've been to the vet for an allergy or to the emergency vet because of some other semi-serious injury. But nothing prepared us for last night's visit to the after hours vet hospital...where we apparently almost lost our precious baby.

Last night at around 8:00 I let the tank out for his evening pee. Everything was normal, he wandered around the yard sniffing and peeing on everything, and because he is trustworthy not to run off, I came back inside to wait for him. We can always tell when he is ready to come back in because he sits at the back door and as he sits down to be let in, his little butt hits the door letting us know he is there. Upon hearing that noise, I promptly went and opened the door to find him acting very strangely. He was going crazy, licking the air, and turning circles. When he came into the house he started licking the walls and continuing his odd behavior. I wasn't too concerned at first because we've seen him do this once before when he got stung by a hornet...so I thought maybe he got stung again. I sat down on the floor to further investigate his injury but he wouldn't let me near his little paw he was holding off of the ground. When Steve came into the hallway, we found two bite marks that were bleeding leading us to believe he had gotten bit by a snake. Immediately I was on the phone with the emergency vet and they told us to bring him in. I could tell he was in a tremendous amount of pain so I gave him some pain medication I had left over from only a few short weeks ago when he hurt his jaw so bad he couldn't open his mouth for 2 days. This seemed to calm him down and sedate him, but also helped to keep his leg from swelling.

When we go to the vet, everything seemed to be ok. They told us that he did indeed get bit by a copper head and it seemed that the snake did not leave much venom in the wound because his leg wasn't swollen too bad, but they wanted to keep him over night for observation. Well this broke my heart because all I wanted to do was take my baby home. They said they still needed to run a series of tests but they would be observing him closely to make sure that the swelling caused by the bite didn't affect his breathing at all. Everything seemed to be on the up and up...

At 4 this morning, Steve and I received a phone call. When the phone call comes that early, you know something has to be wrong so we assumed the worst. Thankfully, Frankie did not pass, but wasn't doing so good. The bite was much worse than they first assumed and my poor baby's leg swelled to the size of a tree limb. This also affected his ability to breath and the ability for his blood to clot since his blood cell count was so low. He ended up with a severe nose bleed, and the vet had to do a blood transfusion. Immediately my mind went to a terrible place and the water works were turned on, and because I am so emotional at the moment anyways, the water works could not be turned off very easily. Steve and I were pretty much awake for the rest of the morning until the alarm went off at 6:15.

After getting up I called the doctor to check on Frank. She said he was doing 90% better after the transfusion but that I needed to come pick him up and take him to my regular vet office to be monitored today. I cried all the way to the emergency vet, and even when in the office, I couldn't hold back the tears. Then I saw my sweet angel. Both of his front legs were swollen, his face was swollen, you could still see traces of blood from his nostrils, and one of his eyes was swollen. He was disoriented so I don't think he really recognized me or Steve, but when he saw the car, he knew we were there as he tried to jump in. If this was him looking 90% better, I don't want to know what he looked like at 4am when we got our phone call.

So now I am sitting at work, thinking about my poor baby at the vet's office, hoping and praying that all is well. I know that deep down he will be ok, but my heart breaks for him because he is in so much pain. But it also breaks because this dog is my child and will forever be one of the loves of my life. I couldn't imagine my life without him and I can't wait to be at home with him, loving on him. In moments where you think you have almost lost something so dear to you, you look back at all the annoying little habits like his obsessive licking of the furniture, his need to sit in your lap all the time, the constant drooling, and the smelliest farts you have ever smelled, and you cannot wait to be around those habits again!