The Peepster's bad day

Peeps (the Chihuahua) got sick yesterday. It began in the morning with his eyes being a little squinty and he seemed a little weak. As the morning turned into early afternoon, he grew worse and we took a flying trip to the vet. His breathing was slightly labored and he had weakened considerably just in an hour’s time. He’s only 3 pounds and it looked as if he’d suddenly lost half of it. He could hardly lift his head.

I was thinking, Oh God, he’s got pneumonia again.

The vet checked him over and then told me to leave him. They’d do blood tests and x-rays. I reminded her that he’d had pneumonia a year ago and they had the x-rays and the reports on file from the emergency animal hospital. She told me to come back to get him at 5:00. If he was worse or if he got worse in the night, I’d have to take him to the emergency animal hospital over in Portsmouth.

About mid-afternoon she called me and said that she could find absolutely nothing that should be causing him to be that sick. She’d looked at the other x-rays and noted that when he was admitted at the ER he had full blown pneumonia, yet the it was really hard to see on the x-rays. Based on that, she said, let’s not take a chance. He has the infected eyes and a bit of congestion, let’s nip it before it fully develops. She said she was treating him pretty aggressively. She had him on a drip and when I came to get him she’d give me some antibiotic to administer at home. And as always, it he got worse, take him to the ER.

It was a long afternoon. When I picked him up, he seemed a little better. Alert with perky ears, at least.

It wasn’t until around midnight that he got up out of his blankets and took a few tentative, if wobbly, steps. And then a few more. And a few more. And then his ears perked up, his eyes opened wide, and he barked at me. It was his “Feed me, Feed Me Now” bark.

I fed him, he gobbled it all down and asked for more. I gave him more and he made that disappear, too. Then his tail went up over his back like usual and he kind of trotted over to give Terry a lick on the nose. Then he went back to sleep.

So far, so good. He’s much, much better this morning, but he’s still not 100%. His trot still has a bit of a wobble and his eyes are watery, but he’s surely a lot better now than he was yesterday afternoon. His nose is also running a little bit, but it’s clear. That’s also good. Keeping everything crossed that I can cross.