Basil's ER visit

Let's rewind. Here's a story I never got a chance to tell. Back in February, during the biggest winter storm of 2010 in our area (we're talking collectively 6 feet of snow and ice) we had to rush Basil to ER at midnight.

Our little boy. Look at that snow! Take note of his trim waist.

We spent all morning shoveling the snow. The neighborhood dogs were really happy because they were allowed to run free. However, we didn't shovel out the car because we didn't think we would need to.

While dad shoveled, the neighbor girls invited Basil in. 15 minutes later, dad went to go get him. When he came home, I fed him dinner. Then he drank maybe 20 cups of water (a medium mixing bowl size).

At night, Basil looked really lethargic. He was waddling up the steps. I checked him out and his tummy seemed unusually swollen, but I wasn't sure. Is it normally this way? Did he just need to poop?

I emailed our friend Joan C. (FBRN foster mom and volunteer) and thank god for people like her who check their email at 11pm at night. She told me if we can, we should get him checked out because bloat can be fatal. This was the first time I ever heard about bloat.

Basil's tummy right before we took him to ER. Look how big and low it is.

Dad threw on some clothes and then had to shovel the car out. The snow was now ice and it's midnight! He drove Basil alone to the animal hospital and I stayed behind in case I had to get help if the car got stuck on the road somewhere.

Immediately, they admitted Basil and took him away from dad :( Of course, the second thing they did was give us the price list for his care. $1600 to keep him over 2 nights. $800 for overnight and $450 for the visit anyway (which includes fluid/meds to make him poo and the late night ER hours). My husband called me and asked what we should do? I asked, Well what's wrong with him? If they tell us what's wrong before we can consider if he needs to be overnight or not. They said they don't know but need to keep him overnight to "monitor him"....

"Monitor him" in vet language is "Charge you $1600 so we can watch him poop."

My husband was all torn and teary eyed. They took Basil away already and he couldn't even see him or say good bye or see if he was scared. Since they couldn't tell us what they thought was wrong with him, I made an executive decision. "Bring him home." I said, it's snowing, cold and he's alone with strangers. There's no way he's going to poo in front of them anyway. So they did what I would have expected in the first place. They gave him the "fluids" (meds) which they injected into the hip area of him and he came home. We were told not to give him any water or food for a day. My poor boy. He came home with not only a big swollen belly but now this fluid pocket on the side of his hip. He looked all Quasimodo-ish.

The next day, we found out that while Basil was over at the neighbor's he ate all of Carmel's dinner. 3 cups of IAMS dog food and 1 cup of dinner at home. That explains it!!! We didn't give him any food or water and yet he pooped 8 times that day. Now, we have to keep an eye out on him when he goes to other people's homes because he goes right for the food bowl!

Whew! Has this ever happened to you? Ever go to ER?