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Friday, February 22, 2008

Damn Pit Bulls

About a week ago, I noticed that Oscar was wheezing slightly and sort of spitting. At the time, I shrugged it off, thinking it was occurring when he was excited, so he'd probably just eaten too fast or something (I just said to my brother on the phone, it occurs to me that this was a pretty damn stupid rationalization of a dog that's as high energy as he is. Comatose for Oscar is like the average family dog having a good day. Excited and awake are the same thing for him.)

But he was eating normally, drinking normally, and (delicately put) eliminating normally, so I didn't really worry too much, though I did keep an eye on things.



Yesterday, the spitting up went from a teaspoon or so of frothy grossness, to what a herd of really pissed of slugs would leave behind if they were all frightened suddenly, now measurable in cups rather than spoons. He was still behaving normally, eating, drinking, eliminating, all fine. I made an appointment for the vet, pointing out that a breed trait of the American Pit Bull Terrier is that something hurting isn't a reason to stop (this is a reason they are good with kids - being poked in the eye isn't worth stopping the love-fest. It's also a reason they can be a bitch to diagnose - they don't show signs of pain easily.) An appointment was made for late this afternoon, and instructions for what to look for that would require emergency treatment rather than waiting.



After a sleepless night of checking on him frequently, I thought he was feeling much better this morning. He had very close to his typical response to a snow day (imagine a short, furry child who doesn't have to take the world's hardest exam because of the snow) - he ran and jumped and twisted and turned and smiled. I left to run an errand, came back forty-five minutes later, and he was shaking and holding his head in a way that lead me to believe breathing wasn't the easiest thing he'd done all day.

Off to the emergency vet, right then.


He was very well behaved, until they tried to x-ray him. They took him away from me for the initial exam, and I heard his name a few times, and then someone came around the corner and said "would you mind stepping --" and he came trotting around the corner, naked as a very naked jaybird, very pleased that he'd found me. I caught him, brought him back, got into a very heavy lead jacket, and held him while they did the x-rays and drew blood.

And there they found normal blood counts, but a little congestion in his lung.

Pneumonia.

Early stages, with an excellent prognosis. But pneumonia.


Damn pit bull, if only he'd shown me he really didn't feel good instead of just cheerfully doing every little thing I asked of him. If only he'd let me know sooner, instead of just sucking it up to make me happy.

He's going to be fine, after a three-week break from dog-school that both of us will miss. He's going to be fine, and that's all that's important.

But still.




Would you pray for him, please?

18 Comments:

Blogger Marfa's Mewsings said...

Sending Mr. Oscar & you all lots of good, healing, loving tho'ts.
Add to those, our hugs, kisses, prayers, chanting & love.
XOXO.

3:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bogey, Bella and Jen wish you and Oscar the best. And a very speedy recovery for our pit bull brother.
poor guy :(

3:37 PM  
Blogger ellipsisknits said...

Dangit, you gotta not scare us like that. With all the build up at the beginning I was expecting you'd had to put him down.

I'm glad you didn't.

I wish you both the best.

4:29 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Annabelle and I are sending all the healing power we can harness to you and O!

5:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oscar, sweetie, get well soon!

5:12 PM  
Blogger Catherine said...

Murphy, Dudley, Girl and I all send him our loving thoughts. The cats declined to express their opinions, but I know in their hearts they do care.

My security word is "olxfo" which does sound like some sort of medication.

5:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pray for him? that word is way too small for what I'm doing.

6:37 PM  
Blogger theminx said...

Aww...poor puppy. :( I'll definitely be praying for him.

7:48 PM  
Blogger Bess said...

Always. Lots of them. Sending much much doggy love.

9:45 PM  
Blogger Jody said...

I'll be praying for you both!! If you need anything - please let me know. Poor baby!

9:50 PM  
Blogger bySarah said...

Feel better Oscar!

9:55 PM  
Blogger KT said...

Aww, poor Oscar! Warm snuggles and thoughts being sent his way!

12:54 AM  
Blogger Carol said...

Impressive. Not in a good way. Sending healing vibes your way! *vibevibevibe*

11:12 AM  
Blogger Kim in Oregon said...

Oh! Poor Oscar! Good ting you caught it early, Cod and Juneau send big puppy slurpy kisses.

1:02 PM  
Blogger Agnes said...

Oh ... poor Oscar! Isn't he just like a kid ... still up for anything fun as long as he has the energy, despite the fact that he is ill? Wish him a speedy recovery. You have to take care of yourself too. :)

6:24 PM  
Blogger RC said...

oh poor poor baby! (you and him)
sending lots of furry love to Oscar

11:34 PM  
Blogger J4 said...

*hugs* and much love to Oscar!

Bullies are amazing... my aunt had a sixteen year old one, blind, deaf, and arthritic. She lives off in the countryside and one morning Ellie (the Staffordshire Bull) went out for her morning sniff around the garden, then disappeared. We had an awful day - couldn't find her anywhere. I eventually found her late that afternoon, two miles away up a half washed-out logging road. She'd just followed her nose the whole way up there, happy as a clam and probably slower than one too.

1:20 AM  
Blogger vi said...

i am so sorry oscar is sick amie,

dogs do that a lot to their people..
they don't like to lay down on the job so to speak

tell him feel better from me

and next time let you know

and you feel better too amie

vi

8:01 PM  

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