Frenchie Fanatic
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This is kind of long but I thought it was worth sharing.
I hope you agree.
Where we live we have a beautiful large canal behind our home. Very lush with lots of wildlife.
This past Wednesday morning I let our two frenchies Sofi and Charlie out to our back yard.
Mind you, it is a good sized back yard.
I turned to get my cup of coffee and came back out a couple of minutes later.
Spotting Sofi and Charlie eating something in the grass, I started walking over to them.
As I got close and called out to them Charlie looked up at me and he has something in his mouth.
As I get closer I see it is bones from a dead bird!!!
I started running towards him and he quickly swallowed it.
Sofi was chomping away at some too. I reached into her mouth, pulled it out and threw it into the canal
It was the remains of a small bird, mostly bones, killed by a cat and left there.
My concern was that the bones would get stuck in Charlies throat. We do not allow them to have bones at all.
No choking. They were both ok. So I thought.
The following night, Thursday, we started getting them ready for their little evening walk.
As they got excited, they started barking, I noticed Charlie wheezing in between his barks. Very strange.
We got outside and started the walk. The wheezing continued and now I noticed that Charlie's gait was a little different.
Kind of stiff and little side to side movement. We decided to not do the walk.
We contacted our vet and sent her a video. The sound was not too good and his gait was not very discernable.
Said she would meet us at her office at 10am the next day.
We gave him a Benadryl, but he was "a little off".
My wife slept with him on the couch, both of us hoping that he'd be better in the morning.
Morning came. I got up and picked him up, put him down and opened the slider to the courtyard.
When Charlie started to walk, it was not pretty. Very stiff legged and unsteady.
He took one step into the courtyard, stumbled and fell forward. He then fell two more times.
He did go out and do his business, came in and ate, but was unsteady on his feet.
Our vet came in on her day off, took x-rays which were inconclusive for an obstruction.
She hooked Charlie up to an IV while she sent the X-rays to a radiologist. No obstruction confirmed.
Our vet thought Charlie might have a neurological affliction called Myasthenia.
She accompanied us to an internal medicine specialist that she knew and liked.
At this point Charlie was so weak he was unable to stand at all.
After his examination, this vet thought Charlie might have Botulism and recommended seeing a neurologist.
Our vet knew a good one in Miami so off we went.
Botulism can be fatal. They would run tests to rule out Myasthenia and a couple of other things, but after the exam, Charlie's symptoms and history with the bird carcass the neurologist was fairly certain Botulism is what Charlie has.
It was a long day for us and an even longer and rougher day for my little man. At this point, he could barely hold his head up.
Amazing how quickly he deteriorated.
The vet called last night to say that Charlie was resting comfortably and his breathing, lungs, and heart were normal.
My wife was a basket case and sleep did not come easily for us last night.
The neurologist called me this morning as he promised to say that Charlie had rested well and was stable.
He was more alert and noticed movement around him.
They had hydrated him last night. He is on heavy antibiotics to shield against pneumonia and anti nausea meds.
Food and meds via IV.
We visited him this afternoon and he looked much better. He was alert and happy to see us.
He is immobile. He wants to stand but cannot. The Dr. reassured us that his legs will start coming back in a few days.
We did get our kisses from him and he got twice as many back.
The neurologist said that the first 72 hours are the most critical (tomorrow evening). We can then have a mini celebration.
Charlie will be hospitalized for a week. A physical therapist will call me tomorrow to talk therapy for our boy.
My reason for sharing this is two-fold.
The first is to alert any who might read this to keep as watchful an eye as possible on your babies.
I know, you already do, but we did too.
My wife and I are anal about our guys and do not like to have them out of our sight outside for more than a few minutes.
But a couple of minutes is all it takes sometimes for them to get into trouble.
We put up a Baby Gate around our pool for our guys.
We put up a fence between the edge of our property and the canal.
We walk our guys outside and do not allow them in our back yard at night because of the poisonous Bufo toads.
We periodically walk our back yard during the wet months looking out for mushrooms.
We thought we had all the bases covered, and then this.
The second reason is to make folks aware of Botulism in dogs. Read up on it.
While it is rare, and their bodies are equipped to fight off many infections, some dogs are susceptible to it
and it does happen.
I never even gave Botulism a thought when I saw Charlie swallow that bone.
At this point, I'm feeling a bit more than cautiously optimistic.
I got a call this evening (twice a day updates) from the ICU tech that's caring for Charlie.
She's wonderful and has a frenchie herself.
She said Charlie is doing great and a bit ahead of schedule as far as progress.
She gave him some cream cheese and he loved it! She put him on his side and he righted himself.
He is moving around in his compartment.
My wife and I shed tears of joy at the news and are thrilled.
He still has a journey ahead of him, but right now it's looking good.
By the way, we're keeping an eye on Sofi for the next couple of days.
She's fine at this point.
I hope you agree.
Where we live we have a beautiful large canal behind our home. Very lush with lots of wildlife.
This past Wednesday morning I let our two frenchies Sofi and Charlie out to our back yard.
Mind you, it is a good sized back yard.
I turned to get my cup of coffee and came back out a couple of minutes later.
Spotting Sofi and Charlie eating something in the grass, I started walking over to them.
As I got close and called out to them Charlie looked up at me and he has something in his mouth.
As I get closer I see it is bones from a dead bird!!!
I started running towards him and he quickly swallowed it.
Sofi was chomping away at some too. I reached into her mouth, pulled it out and threw it into the canal
It was the remains of a small bird, mostly bones, killed by a cat and left there.
My concern was that the bones would get stuck in Charlies throat. We do not allow them to have bones at all.
No choking. They were both ok. So I thought.
The following night, Thursday, we started getting them ready for their little evening walk.
As they got excited, they started barking, I noticed Charlie wheezing in between his barks. Very strange.
We got outside and started the walk. The wheezing continued and now I noticed that Charlie's gait was a little different.
Kind of stiff and little side to side movement. We decided to not do the walk.
We contacted our vet and sent her a video. The sound was not too good and his gait was not very discernable.
Said she would meet us at her office at 10am the next day.
We gave him a Benadryl, but he was "a little off".
My wife slept with him on the couch, both of us hoping that he'd be better in the morning.
Morning came. I got up and picked him up, put him down and opened the slider to the courtyard.
When Charlie started to walk, it was not pretty. Very stiff legged and unsteady.
He took one step into the courtyard, stumbled and fell forward. He then fell two more times.
He did go out and do his business, came in and ate, but was unsteady on his feet.
Our vet came in on her day off, took x-rays which were inconclusive for an obstruction.
She hooked Charlie up to an IV while she sent the X-rays to a radiologist. No obstruction confirmed.
Our vet thought Charlie might have a neurological affliction called Myasthenia.
She accompanied us to an internal medicine specialist that she knew and liked.
At this point Charlie was so weak he was unable to stand at all.
After his examination, this vet thought Charlie might have Botulism and recommended seeing a neurologist.
Our vet knew a good one in Miami so off we went.
Botulism can be fatal. They would run tests to rule out Myasthenia and a couple of other things, but after the exam, Charlie's symptoms and history with the bird carcass the neurologist was fairly certain Botulism is what Charlie has.
It was a long day for us and an even longer and rougher day for my little man. At this point, he could barely hold his head up.
Amazing how quickly he deteriorated.
The vet called last night to say that Charlie was resting comfortably and his breathing, lungs, and heart were normal.
My wife was a basket case and sleep did not come easily for us last night.
The neurologist called me this morning as he promised to say that Charlie had rested well and was stable.
He was more alert and noticed movement around him.
They had hydrated him last night. He is on heavy antibiotics to shield against pneumonia and anti nausea meds.
Food and meds via IV.
We visited him this afternoon and he looked much better. He was alert and happy to see us.
He is immobile. He wants to stand but cannot. The Dr. reassured us that his legs will start coming back in a few days.
We did get our kisses from him and he got twice as many back.
The neurologist said that the first 72 hours are the most critical (tomorrow evening). We can then have a mini celebration.
Charlie will be hospitalized for a week. A physical therapist will call me tomorrow to talk therapy for our boy.
My reason for sharing this is two-fold.
The first is to alert any who might read this to keep as watchful an eye as possible on your babies.
I know, you already do, but we did too.
My wife and I are anal about our guys and do not like to have them out of our sight outside for more than a few minutes.
But a couple of minutes is all it takes sometimes for them to get into trouble.
We put up a Baby Gate around our pool for our guys.
We put up a fence between the edge of our property and the canal.
We walk our guys outside and do not allow them in our back yard at night because of the poisonous Bufo toads.
We periodically walk our back yard during the wet months looking out for mushrooms.
We thought we had all the bases covered, and then this.
The second reason is to make folks aware of Botulism in dogs. Read up on it.
While it is rare, and their bodies are equipped to fight off many infections, some dogs are susceptible to it
and it does happen.
I never even gave Botulism a thought when I saw Charlie swallow that bone.
At this point, I'm feeling a bit more than cautiously optimistic.
I got a call this evening (twice a day updates) from the ICU tech that's caring for Charlie.
She's wonderful and has a frenchie herself.
She said Charlie is doing great and a bit ahead of schedule as far as progress.
She gave him some cream cheese and he loved it! She put him on his side and he righted himself.
He is moving around in his compartment.
My wife and I shed tears of joy at the news and are thrilled.
He still has a journey ahead of him, but right now it's looking good.
By the way, we're keeping an eye on Sofi for the next couple of days.
She's fine at this point.
