Thursday, September 4, 2008

Grrrdy & Sprocket's Harrowing Episode

In early August I introduced you to Sprocket (previously known as Angus) and Grrrdy (previously known as Victoria ~ two lovely wheaten scottish terrier rescue puppies that my friend (Sara & her family) and I adopted ~ you can read the initial story here. Fate/Destiny or whatever you want to call it has touched us since adopting the pups......

{Sprocket (L) & Grrrdy (R)}

The pups are now almost 5 months old and are doing just fine ~ we get the siblings together now and then so they can wrestle around.

Several weeks ago the pups were both scheduled to have the big shot (parvo, rabies, etc) ~ my friend and I use the same vet and found out that we had inadvertently scheduled our appointments at 9:00 (Grrrdy) and 9:30 (Sprocket). We decided we would get the dogs together after the shots so they could play, so when Sprocket arrived for his appointment Grrrdy was already through with her shots and was waiting for us to arrive

As we reintroduced the pups, we noticed that Grrrdy wasn't looking her usual perky self ~ in fact, she just seemed to be fading away. As our vet and her assistant were right there, they reacted quickly and took Grrrdy to check her vitals. In seconds, things were not looking good ~ the vet and her two assistants were rushing around in the back rooms gathering things to help Grrrdy ~ a few minutes passed and our vet called my friend back and told her that Grrrdy was crashing and might not make it. Several more minutes passed and the news was still not good ~ Grrrdy wasn't getting any worse, but she wasn't any better either ~ all we could do was wait and hope that the antihistamine Grrrdy had been given would work. Another ten minutes passed and we were told that Grrrdy seemed to be improving ~ we could go back and sit with her while we waited to see if the medication would see her through.

All of the above happened because Grrrdy had an extreme allergic reaction to one of the shots she was given ~ within 10-15 minutes of getting the shot she went into anaphylactic shock ~ her whole body was just shutting down. Apparently this is a rather rare occurrence, but after seeing Grrrdy's reaction, since they are siblings, Sprocket was treated differently to avoid the same outcome. How lucky we were that we scheduled our appointments when we did and arranged to meet afterwards ~ if we hadn't, Grrrdy and possibly Sprocket wouldn't be with us anymore ~ it really made us realize how tenuous life can be!

Three hours later, we left the vet and returned to our homes ~ glad that the experience was behind us. It took about a week for Grrrdy to return to her usual self, but thankfully, all's well that ends well ~ Grrrdy is back to chasing hotwheels again!

2 comments:

ShabbyInTheCity said...

Adorable!
That song is from a horror movie an old one I watched when I was little...scared the living daylights out of me. "The Bad Seed".

pawsresq said...

HAA!! LOVE IT! That is the cuties video I have seen in a long time.

Boy oh boy Sprocket, you sure have a good eye. Looks like you got a lot of great Scottie stuff....Im a little jelious LOL. You sure are getting to be a big boy.
Hugs to you and your sister
Auntie Faith