It all began when on
vacation on Corsica: we were hiking in the mountains for days and La was
a normal never tired herself until Tuesday evening, when she started to
vomit. But as Bu started to vomit too 10 minutes after her, we thought
they must have eaten something.
But as La was already clearly dehydrated by Wednesday morning, we
stopped at the nearest Ranch and they helped us get an infusion from the
firefighters and explained where to find the nearest vet. The vet
thought infusion was all she needs, so we kept her on it, but it still
wasn't any better the next day, so we came back for blood test and
antibiotics. Her blood was still pretty much o.k., but she was starting
to look pale, so we decided to go back home with the first ferry.
La was only getting worse and worse, so we took her to another vet
before the ferry and her blood was very bad by then already, so she got
a transfusion. Saturday morning, we were home and ultrasound showed she
needs emergency operation. They cut off almost half of her stomach as
there was a big hole in it. We still don't know how it happened as she
never got any pain-killer (NSAID) drugs that are known to do that, so
the surgeon thought it must be cancer, but the pathology didn't show
anything but inflammation of the stomach (gastritis), so we still don't
know how it happened... It's really strange as she never had any
symptoms that would make us think in the direction of an ulcer. She
always had strong stomach (no problems when switching food, getting
antibiotics, whatever...) and LOTS of appetite.
Anyway, the surgeon didn't really believe she can survive an operation
or first 24 hours, he said her chances are very, very low. We're at day
18 today and she is still just bones and holes, but she already barks,
goes for tiny little walks, LOVES to eat and is bit by bit gaining some
weight. Yeap, it looks like she will win this one too.
La, 5 minutes before she started to vomit...
To tell you the truth, I wrote most of this update already two days
after operation
as already then, I was sure she will live and that it's not cancer. The
hardest part of her recovery proved to be putting the weight back on her
without feeding her more food as her tiny little stomach can take or
stronger food as it can handle.
But I'm sure she'll be back soon, nothing can beat my crazy little La.
La, five days after operation
La, three weeks after operation:
La keeps improving at the only speed she knows: FAST. She doesn't look like a bunch of bones anymore and I can already see and feel some muscle. We're slowly increasing the length of the walks and also work on exercise ball every day. Yesterday, we also started with tricks and it sure put the smile back on her face! She says the good thing about all this is that she gets to eat seven times a day now!