Reggie

Well as many of you know The hubs and I first child is Reggie, he is a 3 1/2 yr old min pin.  We love him dearly as do the kids.  This past week we thought we might lose Reggie forever.  It was one of the scariest times in our lives.  It started last week on Monday.  I was getting the kids ready to head up to the Splash park, Kalen gave Reggie his treat that he always gets when we leave the house.  Reggie was completely fine when we left.  When we got back a few hours later I noticed he was a little sluggish and just kinda laying around.  I got both boys in for their nap and I took Reggie outside to do his business and then we both crawled in the bed for nap time.
When I woke up Reggie had pooped on our bedroom floor and it was not a firm as it usually is.  I made note of it, cleaned it up and went on with the day. All dogs get a bought or diarrhea every now and then so I wasn't too worried at this point.  The Hubs came home early that day cause I had a Doctors Appt in Ocala for my knee.  While I was gone Reggie had a few more diarrhea episodes and he began throwing up.  Later that night after we got the kids to sleep we wrapped Reggie in a blanket and laid him next to us so he would be comfy.  He hadn't eaten since this morning and every time he drank water he would throw it up.  We both decided if he wasn't showing signs of getting better by morning I would take him to the Vet. 
As night came his diarrhea turned into straight liquid and he could barely hold it in while we tried to get him outside.  We felt so bad for Reggie.  So we just tried to make him comfy through the night.  We finally started getting him to hold down water.  We would let him have a few sips every now and then as long as he could keep it down he could get more in 15ish mins.  By 2 or 3 in the morning we put one of Lucas' diapers on Reggie because he poor little tushy was leaking.  He finally fell asleep around 4:30 for a few hours.  As soon as the Vet opened I called to see if I could bring Reggie in ASAP and I wasable to get an appt for about an hour later.  Reggie just wanted to lay in a blanket on the floor in our room.  His diarrhea had stopped and so had his vomiting, we thought he was on the mend but still wanted him to get looked at because he seemed dehydrated.  His appt finally comes around and I had requested to see a certain vet because his wife and I are friends and we have a play date every week.  So I knew I could trust him with Reggie.  As I left the Hubs said Kalen started calling for "Treggie" and was looking all over for him. 

Waiting at the Vet.  He usually is trying to play with all the other dogs

The Vet tech took Reggie's vitals and got a stool sample.  Well there was nothing but dark red blood that came out of his tushy.  We thought this morning that there might be blood in Reggie's poop but we weren't positive because it was still mostly brown.  His temp was taken 4 different times with two different thermometers because they thought they were broken.  His temp was 96 which in dogs it should be around 100.  This meant his blood was not circulating well enough.  Reggie was also severely dehydrated.  So they knew he was going to need an IV but wanted to wait till they got his blood results so he could gets meds at the same time.  It took hours to get his blood work when it should have taken no longer than 20 mins.  His red blood cell count was extremely high and the machine could not read it.  His blood was thick and almost black.  The Vet was starting to get extremely worried about Reggie so he took him back to get his IV started.  We knew Reggie was in bad shape when he willing let Charlie, his vet, take his blood and then pick him up.  Reggie likes Charlie just not in the Vet office.  He just slumped in his arms. 
Charlie told me I could go home and he would call with the blood results, but I didn't want to leave until we knew what was wrong with Reggie.  So he let me stay in the room for another 45 mins waiting on the results.  They were finally able to get results and this is where I finally broke down and started crying in front of a family friend.  Reggie has a severe case of HGE which is a gastrointestinal disease, which causes vomiting and diarrhea among other things.  He could have gotten it anywhere, Charlie figures he must have ate something which triggered it.  Because Reggie is so small all the symptoms were fast tracked in him and he became deathy ill in a matter of hours.  His intestines where being torn apart and his body wasn't trying to fight the illness. This illness also caused him to get severely dehydrated since he couldn't keep anything down.  HGE is treatable however another thing that showed up on the blood work scared the crap out of Charlie and me.  His kidney and liver numbers were extremely high which means his Kidneys could be failing.  There is nothing they can do for kidney failure.  They can give Reggie medicine to help with symptoms but they cannot stop his kidneys from deteriorating.  Charlie wanted to keep Reggie at the Vet so they could give him an IV, medicine, and keep him on warm blankets to raise his temp.  He brought Reggie back to me before I left so I could give him some pets and tell him we love him and he needs to get better. Charlie told me to keep my phone with me in case Reggie started turning for the worse so we could go up and be with him. Then I left.  I immediately called my mom cause I wasn't ready to go home to tell my Hubs about Reggie.

Reggie with his IV, right before I left

Finally I got home after being at the Vet for hours and I sat down and told the hubs everything.  I held myself together until I had to tell him Reggie might be in Kidney Failure.  That was harder than being told myself about Reggie.  When Kalen got up from his nap he was asking for "Treggie", it never occurred to us the effect Reggie being gone would have on Kalen.  Which made it harder that Kalen loves Reggie as much as we do and he was upset he wasn't home.
Later that day Charlie called and said Reggie was responding to the IV and he seemed to be getting better.  He was still super lazy and had droopy eyes but he would lift his head every now and then to see what was going on.  His red blood cell numbers were dropping but we wouldn't know until morning about his Kidney numbers.  He also told me he was going to bring Reggie home with him tonight to keep an eye on him.  I was relieved by this cause I didn't want Reggie all alone through the night.  They live a street over from us so he said we could stop by when he got home to see Reggie.  The hubs was thankful for this since he hadn't seen Reggie since that morning. While we visited with Reggie, Charlie explained in Doc terms what was happening to Reggie and what would happen if he was indeed going into Kidney Failure, which scared the crap out the hubs and I.  We were all hoping it was a crazy fluke to do with the HGE and he would be fine but Charlie was preparing us in case it wasn't. 
The next day the hubs went to work and we waited not so patiently for the phone to ring.  It finally did and I was excited and scared to answer the phone.  Either Reggie was getting better or we might be losing him way to early.  THANK GOD it was the first!! All of Reggie's numbers had dropped back into the normal range.  Reggie wasn't in kidney failure.  He wanted to run another test for Addison's disease to see if that caused Reggie to get so sick. If he did have it it would require Reggie to get an injection every month for the rest of his life.  He wouldn't die from this his body would just need help producing certain hormones. (This test came back negative, Thank goodness). I got 2 more update calls throughout the day.  Reggie was eating and they placed a small drip IV in him to get him a few more liquids.  Charlie said we were most likely going to have Reggie home tonight!!
Charlie drove him home and I went to go get him and all the meds.  When Reggie saw me his tail was wagging and he was jumping.  I couldn't have been happier to see him move around like that when only the day before he couldn't even hold himself up.  He needed to take 2 different liquid medicines and a pill for the next 5 days (1 liquid three times a day and the other with the pill twice a day)  and he was also on a special food as well.  The medicine was a nightmare to give Reggie, its like he knew it was time for it and he would run and try to hide from us. He also had a bandage on his leg that could be taken off in an hour.  So I brought him home and Kalen was watching out the window and was yelling for "Treggie" as soon as he saw him.  Reggie was so happy to see the hubs he was wagging his little nub and was giving kissed. 
About two hours later we went to take off Reggie's bandage and realized he still had the catheter in his leg from his IV.  So I texted Jennifer, Charlie's wife, to see what I should do.  Charlie called and then came over to remove it.  He said how sorry he was they left it in his leg when they were suppose to take it out.  I told him it wasn't a big deal I just didn't know what to do with it. 
Reggie is now off his meds and he eating crunchy food.  He finally seems to be himself again. 
I cannot Thank everyone enough that kept Reggie in their thoughts and prayers.  I also can't Thank our Vet Charlie enough.  He went above his duties to help Reggie, when he didn't have too.  He brought Reggie to his house so he didn't have to stay at the Vet, let us come over for visitation, home delivered Reggie, and made a house call. 


Reggie Easter weekend