Mysti Makes Progress

Well, Mysti gave us quite a scare, and she's not completely out of the woods yet. The vet had to make three incisions in her intestine and stomach to get a foot-long toy out of her gut. It was one of those stuffing-less foxes. Her intestine looked pink and normal at first, but it immediately bruised when he got the toy out. He was really concerned by that, and put her chances of survival at 50-50. We didn't sleep very well on Monday night.

Yesterday was better for us -- she made it safely through the night and we got to visit her in the afternoon. She was pretty loopy, but recognized us and was able to sit up. The vet was still concerned about the bruising and mentioned that we might have to make some decisions about further surgery or something else I can't think about. But, he also told us that she would probably be okay if she made it through the first 48 hours. We slept better last night. Here she was yesterday:

This morning, the vet said she had done very well overnight -- no fever -- and they were going to try to get her to drink some water and eat some special canned food. He'd let us know how she had done.

I got a call from the vet a little before noon asking if we could go to his office and "coax" Mysti to eat and drink because she just wouldn't. I headed there and texted Pepper about it because he was on the golf course. As I was pulling into the parking lot, Pepper called to say that I needn't go -- they had gotten her to eat, but I could visit her if I wanted. I had brought some chicken broth for her (that I didn't get to give her because she needs the special food), so I thought I'd go on in.

She was out of the "confinement" pen and the IV was out! She wagged her tail and smiled at me! She had eaten five bites of food when hand-fed by the vet's wife. I got to walk her outside where she piddled and and was positively bouncy! I got her to eat about half a can of food (hand-feeding, of course!) and drink a good bit of water. She really wanted to go with me when I left -- I felt so mean. But we might get to bring her home this afternoon to be her nurses (and personal servants), so I am cautiously optimistic. Here she was earlier (No, Pepper didn't beat me up -- I'm having some allergy issues.):

There was a message on the answering machine from Dr. Barnett when I got home -- he had called as I was driving to the office. It was kinda cute -- he said that they had gotten her to eat a little, but only by lying down in the pen with her, hand-feeding her, and that "she was quite the drama queen." Heh.

So it looks like Dr. Barnett has saved the lives of two of our dogs. I hope he never gets the opportunity to do so again. But, he'll get a wonderful Christmas card from Moogie's Manor! And probably a donation to his favorite charity.