Dakota and the Great Purse Incident

Let me start this post by saying Dakota is very high spirited and very mischievious, he is like a two year old that gets into everything. Why didn't I keep that in mind when I went outside for a few minutes on Friday afternoon and left him to his own devices? Well, there was nothing about that could cause him any trouble, afterall. Right? Oh how wrong I was. My purse was on the kitchen counter and I didn't think twice about it, that's the one thing Koda has never once shown any interest in whatsoever. None. I came in from being outside for a few minutes and my heart completely dropped. He had pulled my purse off the counter top and was consuming the contents of a pill bottle. It got worse. As I walked towards him I could see he had consumed an entire bottle of 1000mg Omega 3 fish oil tablets, my lip gloss (who cares), he had punctured my asthma inhaler and I had no idea whether he inhaled any or not, and he was chewing on an empty vitamin bottle. At the time I didn't know it was the empty one - I had bought a new one that was also in my purse and I guess I forgot to throw the old one away. Thank goodness, because he didn't touch the new one. He was so pleased with himself, and I was in hysterics. I called his vet and they looked up the toxicology of it all. All in all nothing in it was that bad, it's just the quantity. She told me signs to look out for, and to make sure he drinks alot of water. He did. I watched him all night and while he didn't ever vomit or poo (she said he would) you could see within 30 minutes of consumption that he did not feel good. It was a restless evening for us both. My neighbor came to check on him about 10:30 that night and we took him outside to see if he would use the bathroom. He had drank 2 bowls of water and still hadn't relieved himself so I was worried. He didn't use the bathroom but I noticed his walking was a little slow and labored. I chalked it up to him feeling really bad, but we loaded him in the car and took him to the emergency vet anyway as a precaution. 15min later we get him out of the car and he acts as if nothing is wrong. He's walking fine, he used the bathroom in the field - twice, and didn't stumble once. I took him inside and they checked his vitals and they were perfect, so I opted to take him home and keep a close eye on him just in case. I was optimistic that he was going to be fine.

Saturday morning came, 7:30am ish, he wanted to go outside. yay! right? sigh. At first he seemed fine. The further we walked he slower he got (and we didn't walk far). His legs started acting funny, his steps very clumsy and uncoordinated and his front legs stomping. I made him stop walking and he sat down but he was shaking. I started crying again and I don't think I stopped until yesterday. I didn't know what to do, he was laying down on the ground at this point and he weighs 70lbs. Then I saw a neighbor walking his dog and I asked him to help me. Dakota stood up when he came and he seemed steady for the moment so we walked very slowly to see how he would do. He didn't do good at all, the shaking got worse and so did his walking. He was exhausted and fell down. I gave the leash to my neighbor and ran to get the car. We loaded him in the car and I took him to the vet clinic. The trip there was horrible. Dakota couldn't catch his breath, it sounded like he was suffocating and I thought he was going to die. I honestly thought my furbaby was going to die in my car and I was physically sick from fear. Somehow I got him there safely and he was able to jump out of the car but collapsed just inside the door of the clinic. They immediately came and carried him to the back and started working on him. They ran every test imaginable, blood work, x rays, EKGs. and nothing. they found nothing. everything was normal. The vet suspected pancreatitis, he needed a 'snap' test. They can do it there but have to send it out and everywhere would be closed until Tuesday (today). She said she was going to send him to the emergency vet clinic, they can do the snap test and get results on site and he needed to be in ICU and monitored at least overnight. They were giving him IV fluids to flush out his system at this point so we waited about 2 hours before they let me take him. They carried him to the car and loaded him in and away we went to the emergency vet. They will have answers, they will fix it. I was trying to think positively. They looked over his paperwork and tests that had already been done. They did the snap test and it was negative for pancreatitis. They could find nothing wrong. They had not seen him collapse, or the weird way he walked. I told them to walk him so they could see what is going on. they did but not long enough. I walked him, and I showed them. So the vet said 'we cant find anything wrong but that's definitely not normal behavior so we need to keep him and watch him' really? ummm isn't that what his vet already said? GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR frustrating. So they kept him overnight. I called every 2 hours. No change. No change. No change. One thing the ER vet said was that it could be a toxin causing the neurological issues. It might work out of his system in a few days, or it might not. I picked him up early early sunday morning and brought him home. It's watch and wait. If he doesn't improve, he'll have to go to a neurologist. He was so happy to be with me, and be home. He slept almost the entire day. He was happy and more peppy (I knew when he was interested in a cat lol) but he still wasn't the same old Koda. I thought maybe it would take him a few days, he'd been through alot. One thing the ER vet on duty told me when I picked him up was that they hadn't taken him out very much - they didn't want to induce that reaction in him. This upset me slightly because how do you know there was no improvement if you didn't? And you've given him 3 bags of IV fluids - how can you 'flush' his system if you don't take him to relieve himself and get the toxins out? When I picked him up he was going crazy bc he had to use the bathroom so badly! He went for ages! poor thing!!!!!!!!!! and he kind of didnt stop. The only thing he woke up for on sunday was to go potty and then right back to sleep. I did notice an improvement, though. He was able to walk a little bit further each time. I didn't push him. He would pull me and we would go a few feet more each time. He's still very slow and the longer you walk the slower he gets - we still dont go far at all, but it IS an improvement. His personality and spark is back as well. In fact, today when I went home to check on him for lunch he barked for a bite of food! This might not sound like a big deal, but Koda is a talker, he is always voicing his opinion or letting you know what he wants - mostly through howling. (well, he is a husky afterall!) But He hasn't talked since the incident and I was really worried. I would try to get him to and it looked like he wanted to speak, but then he wouldn't. Or couldn't - that's what I was most worried about was whether he actually could or not. But once he barked today, he definitely found his voice again because then he didn't shut up lol and I didn't want him to, it's the sweetest sound i've ever heard. So while the walking is still not 100%, it is better so i'm praying he will make a full recovery from this. I'm so thankful for Craig and my friends who were worried about him as well and who came to see him or called/txt'd to check on him. It meant so much to me. I think all the prayers for him worked, I honestly do.