Bella Emergency

Lainey and Bella at the Beach

How could it be possible for Bella to be doing this on Tuesday, and by the time she went to bed that night being in so much pain that she whimpered when we touched her?  By morning, she could not walk and I'm not exaggerating.  Scott called the veterinarian who opened the earliest and got an appointment for 9:20am.  By 7:45am, he wanted to go just wait in the office.  I suggested we wait until 8:30, but by 8:15, she seemed to be getting worse so off we went.  They took us right away when we arrived. 

Scott and I were scared.  Bella has become an important being in our life.  When I "rescued" her from the pet store, I honestly thought that I would have all the responsibilities of her care since Scott was used to huge dogs.  You know the kind.... a man's dog!  I couldn't have been more wrong.  We are both in it 100% for this little dog, and "attached" seems not a big enough word to describe our feelings for her.

Yesterday morning was scary and emotional.  Bella could not move her back legs.  She could not even get into a sitting position as we neared our appointment time.  If she tried to move, she yelped and whimpered.  The day before we had gone to the dunes and the beach, which didn't seen any more difficult than climbing mountain trails or our ocean beach.  She has hiked seven miles, walking the entire way.  She's a pro.  Which is why we were at a loss for what might have happened.  

Scott began to think that she might have ingested something and it was effecting her nervous system.  That was frightening because we had no clue as to what it might have been, if it were true.  We did have the presence of mind to retrieve her last stool sample out of the trash for testing.  

Not finding anything is difficult since then the only treatment is to manage the symptoms, which in Bella's case was pain.  There seemed to be no broken bones, nothing showed up in her stool sample, the ecg showed that her irregular heartbeat was because of the pain she was experiencing.  Our instructions were to give her a pill and keep her quiet.  I wasn't sure how the quiet part would go since she is such an active little thing, but because of the amount of pain, she hardly moved.....

....for a while.

By the time we got to our next destination (Scott's family), she was perking up.  We parked in the shade  with the windows down and let her rest for a couple of hours.  Scott took her out for a break and it was like a miracle had occurred.  She saw a bird and ran after it!  Mind over matter?  Miracle pill?  It was as if she had never had a problem at all.  By the time we left there, she was pretty much back to her normal self.

The reasons are a mystery, but one thing that is no mystery is how important this fluffy, black ball of energy is to us!