Rollercoaster

The past few months have been a bit of a rollercoaster and hence my blogging schedule (if you can call sporadic, unplanned posting a 'schedule') has all but completely vanished.  

Our English Springer Spaniel Zara has given us quite the scare recently and so I've been a bit all over the place.  Allow me to explain...

Zara was coming up to two years old and we decided to get her spayed.  The operation went smoothly and she was allowed home the same day.  However, the rest of her recovery has not been quite so straight-forward.  There have been several rushed trips to our vet, the emergency vet and in the end a referral to The University of Liverpool veterinary school where she was seen at the Leahurst campus in the small animal teaching hospital.  They found out that she had an internal bleed caused by a dislodged suture which resulted in her requiring an emergency operation.  After this second op we thought she was on the road to recovery, unfortunately we were wrong and nobody quite knew why.  She underwent lots of tests and several potential diagnosis were mentioned.  It was thought that she had a genetic blood disorder which prevented her blood from clotting.  The treatment for which was intravenously fed plasma.  After a couple of weeks at Leahurst and close to 10 bags of plasma her blood results were still not improving.  The vet called us in.  Arriving in that consultation room was a bittersweet moment.  We were delighted to see her after what felt like forever but the news from the vet was not good.  They said that they could not stop the internal bleed and that she was not reacting to the treatment.  There was nothing more they could do.  They advised us to take her home and make her comfortable but that she would deteriorate at an unknown pace and eventually need putting to sleep.  

Poorly pup

My husband and I were complete wrecks.  We might not be parents to human babies just yet but our pets are our family and feel like our children.  We brought her home and decided to make sure she enjoyed whatever time she had left.  The first thing we changed was her diet, no more kibble for Zara, oh no.  She dined on steak, black pudding and liver as well as many other fine doggy treats.  We took her on small lead walks and captured a ridiculous amount of photographs.  

It was difficult to remain positive during this time.  Every day I expected the worse.  I couldn't concentrate at work.  I found it difficult to eat and was almost constantly nauseous.  Zara hadn't quite finished shocking us just yet.  The vets in Liverpool had sent her bloodwork to a specialist in America.  When we eventually got the results, everyone was shocked.  They were normal.  

The vets still don't know what or if there's something wrong with Zara's blood but she is currently happy, healthy and as bonkers as ever.  Her swollen blood-filled stomach has completely vanished as her body has reabsorbed the blood.  She looks and acts exactly as she did before the operation.  We're baffled but in a very good way.  

Happy pup

We understand that she might not necessarily be entirely out of the woods yet but we're certainly feeling much more positive than we did a few weeks ago.  We keep counting our blessings.  

I'd like to say a massive THANK YOU to all our friends and family that have really been there for us during this extremely stressful time.  I'm hoping with a bit more stability at home I'll be able to hop back on the 'blog-waggon'.

CB x