Joined
·
6 Posts
I’m feeling a little helpless right now…. I have two 9 year old Shih Tzu litter mates; Paris and Nicky. (the Hilton sisters) We went out of town last week to visit my parents. They live in rural north east Louisiana. During the night Paris woke me up standing on my chest. She was gasping and coughing. I wasn’t sure what it was so I tried to comfort her but after a few minutes I knew that something serious was happening. The only emergency vet was a little over an hour away so I quickly got up and got on the road. I’ve heard enough about little dogs and congestive heart failure, but it broke my heart when the vet had to tell me. They kept Paris in an oxygen box that day and overnight, and the following morning I took her to a vet close to where my parents live. My parent’s vet put her on Enalapril, Lasix and Vetmedin and asked us to come back in 2 weeks. The first day/night home (Monday) I didn’t think she would make it. She wouldn’t eat, or drink and was breathing so fast. She slept next to me all night but I kept waking up to make sure she was still with us. The following morning she did drink water and she went outside and urinated. My mother and I had to force the pills down her but she continued to drink but still no eating. I didn’t want to stress her out with a 5 hour car ride (she hates riding in the car) and since I had to get back to work in Dallas, I left her with my mother. Mom and I talk multiple times a day, she is giving Paris pedialyte with a dropper and offering her all sorts of food, but other than a few tiny bites of turkey she hasn’t eaten. Today is Friday so she hasn’t really eaten anything significant in 5 days. The vet suggested my mother try a variety of foods but no luck. I’ve overnighted a couple tubes of Nutri-cal and I’m hoping she finds that appealing. I have a follow-up vet appointment with my parent’s vet in about a week and a half then I’m bringing her back home to Dallas for a cardiologist appointment on Nov. 12th. It’s killing me that I don’t have my baby with me! It’s a 5 hour trip over and tomorrow is Saturday, I’m thinking about driving over to at least spend the day to see if I can get her to eat something. I’m afraid if she won’t eat she won’t be strong enough to fight. Is this a side effect of the drug or is my baby ready to go? I have her sister at home with me but now every time she drinks water too fast and sort of coughs I’m petrified she’s got CHF too! (I’ll be having the cardiologist have a listen when we take her sister in) I know, and have read about dogs living years with CHF, I don’t know why I’m feeling so afraid. Paris was the runt of the litter and they’re already tiny (imperial shih tzus are about 8.5 lbs) she’s gone from 7.5 to 6.8lbs in about a month (the last time we were at the vet for a regular visit) I’m afraid she’s just going to starve down to nothing if she doesn’t get her appetite back soon. The pedialyte is great but it has no nutritional value. I can push pills down her little throat but how to I make her eat? I guess I"m just looking for support/advice, like I said at the beginning, I feel so completely helpless right now.