They Don’t Call Him Snoopy Because of Charlie Brown

I didn’t go to work on Thursday. Snoopy tried to scare us to death, and as a result I wound up being awake for nearly 24 hours in a row. There is a TMI warning for this post, as there will much discussing of disgusting canine bodily functions. Well, these bodily functions would be equally as disgusting if they were human. So those of you with weak stomachs, proceed with caution.

Wednesday was interesting in and of itself, without Snoopy’s help (see my weight-loss blog post, which interestingly enough comes with its own TMI warning). I got home around 7pm, fed all the animals, and everything seemed fine.

Then, at about 8:30pm, Snoopy barfed in front of the front door. He went outside and had some runny poop, walked around in a squat for a few minutes, then came up on the front porch and barfed two more times. I felt so bad for him; he was trying to get around the puddles and I was trying to help him, then he slipped and fell in one of the puddles. He completely wigged out and obviously grossed himself out! I managed to get him back in the house and cleaned up. I turned my back for 20 seconds, turned back around and discovered he had suffered massive, projectile, explosive diarrhea. And peed. By the time I cleaned that up, he did it again. I was very concerned about him, and so was everyone else. He kept going to the water dish, hovering his muzzle right over the surface of the water, but not taking a drink. We would sit in the hallway with his head hanging, then wander around, come back to the water dish, not be able to bring himself to drink, then go sit in the hallway and hang his head. He repeated this pattern over and over until he barfed again. I was really concerned about dehydration, especially considering the amount of liquid he was losing with each…erm…discharge, and because of his age – which we figure to be between 12 and 15.

He finally was able to take a few sips of water. By this time, it was way past my bedtime, but Sis had wrapped him in a towel and held him in her lap in the recliner. I went to my room to play a few games on my fabulous Kindle before going to sleep. Sometime around midnight, I got up to use the bathroom one last time before lights out and when I came out, decided to check on Snoopy. I found Les sobbing in the kitchen, begging Snoopy not to die as Snoopy wobbled in circles around the dining room. He could not keep his footing and was very obviously disoriented. He had just pooped all over Sis as well. We decided that this called for medical intervention. We thought there was a 24-hour emergency vet clinic in Centralia, about 25 miles away, but it turns out it is not open 24 hours. We found one in Olympia, about 45 miles away. Sis and I threw on clothes, wrapped Snoopy in a couple of towels, told Les to get his shit together and hit the road. On the way, we noticed that his eyes were constantly flitting from left to right and he was very agitated. He calmed down after about 10 minutes into the car ride.

We got to the clinic and they took him right back (we had called ahead to explain the situation so they were ready for us). They gave him a mild sedative to calm him down, and after about 20 minutes they came to talk to us and get the whole story. By this time, not only were his eyes going from side to side, now his head was wagging from side to side as well. The doctor could not figure out what was going on; I discussed my concern about dehydration, and wondered if he had a blockage or something. I did find something that looked like chewed up, tiny, splintered green things that sure looked and felt like plastic to me. The doctor was concerned that he had gotten into something toxic, but we just don’t have any idea of what it could be. We keep all medications (human and otherwise), chocolate, sugar-free items, etc. all out of their reach, and we could not think of anything in green plastic that he could have gotten into. There were no signs of anything in the house being chewed up or gnawed on. But, like this post title says, he wasn’t named for the Peanuts character; he’s called Snoopy because he can’t keep his big, doxie nose out of stuff.

They did x-rays and did see something in his colon, but it seemed to be moving along just fine with no danger of obstruction. The cost of all of this was great and we wanted to do as much for him as we could; the clinic was very helpful and understanding of this. In the end, we did the x-rays, he received subcutaneous fluids, an anti-nausea shot, a dose of antibiotics (a pill which we did not end up giving him – it was for if we saw blood in his poop or vomit, which never occurred), and the sedative: $477 and change. I paid for half and Sis paid for half; this way we are both mostly screwed instead of just Sis being totally screwed. He is Jim’s dog, but Jim would have just had him put to sleep because Jim is an asshole and won’t even fork out the $18 to have his toenails clipped (no, we cannot do his at home). But that’s another whine for another day.

We got home at 4:45am, right when my alarm clock goes off. I sent a text to my co-worker and told her I wouldn’t be in since I was just now getting home from a vet emergency. Sis kept Snoopy with her and slept with him in the recliner and I went to bed. The sedative wore off about the time she tried to go to sleep, but he stayed with her all morning. I got up around 1pm and was overjoyed to see that he was doing great! His eyes and head had stopped that weird flopping back and forth, and though he was weak, he was walking around just fine. He continued to get stronger throughout the day, and when I came home from work on Friday night, he was even better than his old self. When Luka came in for dinner, Snoopy ran after her into the kitchen – boing boing boing. His eyes were clear and bright and he just couldn’t seem to wag his tail enough. I nearly cried. Tonight he has been frisky, even initiating play with Les by pawing at his hands and nipping him.

Sigh…it was a close call and really scary. I hope he doesn’t do that again. I tried to look up his symptoms on The Google, but couldn’t come up with anything. I don’t know if it was the dehydration that caused those weird neurological symptoms; we still don’t know what he ate – if anything – that would have caused the vomiting and diarrhea.

We are just glad he is his good ‘ol self again.

Oh, and everyone at work was totally cool about my missing work; two of the guys I work with even came into the lab to ask me how Snoopy was doing and were so very happy that he was doing so much better. It made my heart feel happy.

TTFN.