Big scare!

We were planning a trip to Wichita Falls and Dallas starting today, then a week visiting my sister in Seattle. We planned to take Liam (our adorable almost-3-year-old Cavalier) with us to Texas, then he would stay here at a petsitter's house while we went to Washington. Knowing that he'd be around other dogs while we stayed in Texas and then here at the petsitter's, I thought I'd make sure all his vaccinations were current. It was time for his annual exam anyway.

So on Thursday, I took him to the vet. "Any problems?" she asked. None...he's been perfectly fine. She said they were running a special this month on full-spectrum bloodwork. Just to proactively catch anything that might go unnoticed. $30 instead of the regular $100. So I said okay.

Yesterday, she called me back. Liam's bloodwork had come back, and she was very alarmed. His kidney numbers were extremely high. He only had about 25% kidney function left. It was a little strange that he hadn't showed any symptoms yet, but not unheard of in a young dog. Still, this was Very Serious.

It could be one of three things. Prognoses varied with the cause.
1. It could be that something was wrong with his kidneys congenitally, and we never knew. In that case, there would be very little they could do, and she guessed he'd probably only live another year at most.
2. He could have ingested some sort of toxin. Antifreeze, raisins, grapes, lilies, chemicals. Any exposure? No, we didn't think so. But he could have come in contact with something on a walk, maybe? If so, the damage would most probably be permanent. Again, not a lot they could do.
3. He might have contracted leptosporosis. This is a deadly infection they can pick up from contact with the urine of wild animals, notably raccoons, possums, skunks or rats. We are just a few blocks from the river, and we see most of these animals routinely in our neighborhood. With all the rain we've had lately, the vet said, it could even be in the ground water. It takes 10 days for the lepto test to come back, but it is curable with antibiotics if caught early enough. Some permanent damage might occur, but probably not enough to seriously compromise his lifespan.

The vet suggested starting him on IV antibiotics immediately, reasoning that if his numbers came down within 1-4 days, it would effectively prove that it was lepto. (In a week or so, the original test results would confirm it.) If not, there was no harm in giving him antibiotics. She didn't know exactly how long it would take to get it under control. They might be able to release him in one or two days, maybe four.

Lepto is highly contagious to humans as well as other dogs (cats seem to be immune, strangely enough.) So if it was lepto, Hubby, SonofEva and I needed to contact our family doctor immediately to start on an antibiotic regimen ourselves. And we would have to notify everyone who had a dog that had come in contact with Liam in the past few weeks. Arrrgh!

So we cancelled our trip to Texas and checked him into the veterinary hospital yesterday. SonofEva brought the T-shirt he sleeps in to put in Liam's cage. (He sleeps with him every night.) We all three sat at home last night biting our fingernails, waiting for her to call us this afternoon and tell us what his blood test showed today. Hoping as hard as we could that the numbers would go down.

At 3 o'clock today, we couldn't stand it any longer so we called. They were all puzzled. His numbers today were perfectly normal. There was no way that 24 hours of antibiotics could have brought the numbers down that far. So they did the bloodwork again. Again, it was perfectly normal.

They deduced that the original results must have been a lab error.

We were there to pick up Liam within 30 minutes. Yes, all three of us. We were so happy to know there was nothing wrong with him!!!!! Hooray!!!!!

On Monday, I will deal with them about the bill. I think they owe us a BIG refund.

Whew. Liam isn't the only tired puppy around here. I am exhausted.