I am trying not to jinx it, but I think we are now out of the woods.  Rufus has been completely fine for two days and I think I can breathe again.  Such drama.. It was hard to even write about it because I was so worried. Having said that, I didn’t want to detract from the celebration of Eris’s birthday, nor did I have a whole lot of answers.  I knew anything that I posted would be full of doom and gloom and probably just scare me more with the questions.  So here’s the skinny of last weekend’s roller coaster drama.

Thursday afternoon I went to the grocery store to pick up a few items for dinner with the family.  The girls were in their crates and they boys were left to their own devices freely roaming in the house.  First off, I left the blinds open in the front of the house which is a total no-no.  I came home to find Rufus limping a little, very guarded and looking pretty sad. So I assume that he has seen a dog walk by the window while I was gone, went nutters and wrenched his holder/elbow/leg sliding across the hardwood floors. He isn’t even interested in the birthday cake I am photographing and cutting slices of.  He just lays in the doorway looking pathetic.  He does eat cake and his dinner ok, but doesn’t want to come upstairs for bed and it takes my son quite a bit of coaxing to finally get him to come up to bed. He gets up on the bed to snuggle and I notice his ears feel a little warm but don’t really think anything of it, just figure its warm upstairs.

Fast forward to Friday morning… I have to wake him up and when he gets up he stumbles, hesitates to go downstairs, refuses to eat and looks generally miserable.  I have to take the girls out on an errand and by the time I get back he is looking horrible.  He wont go outside and wont eat his breakfast.  I do get him to eat some cake though.. lol.  SO I call the vet and make an appointment to be seen at 3pm.  I need to wait til my son is home from school so he can help me get Rufus in and out of the dog mobile.

At the vet he was not limping and his spirits seemed much better so it was difficult for the vet to figure out what was going on with him.  At first she didnt seem too concerned and figured he’d just wrenched something until the tech reported he had a 104°F fever and no apparent source of infection.  She gave him a complete and thorough exam including an internal rectal exam… ick – poor baby.  No lymph nodes enlarged, he has some arthritis and and his abdomen felt fine but still no idea why he was sick.  Her first thoughts went to bone cancer and she ordered a complete blood panel and urinalysis. She sent me home with no meds and expecting the worst (the dreaded “c” word was tossed around way too much for my liking).  She didn’t want to give him anything in case his liver or kidneys were failing and would not tolerate the meds she wanted to prescribe.  We go home, he seems in better spirits for a bit then goes down hill again.  Fever stays at 104° and he doesn’t want dinner. He refuses to get up off his bed and stays there most of the night looking pathetic.

He had a pretty miserable night, was very hot and panting – fever was still 104°. I cranked up the AC and cooled things down and made sure he had a bowl of water in my bathroom. This morning he was still absolutely pathetic looking. He stumbled a little getting up and was still favoring his leg a little, but his temp has come down a bit, he went outside and did both his business, but not interested in food at all – is drinking water though.

First thing Saturday morning the vet calls and reports all his bloods came back normal WHOO HOO! She says at this point she says she is not concerned about cancer since all readings are completely normal, including the urinalysis… so no infection at all either??? She thinks its a virus and we have just caught it mid course.  She says she’ll leave some meds for me at the front counter and he can have some pepsid for his tummy. (he can have 1.5 20mg non-chewable tablet 1xday).  I am to monitor his temp and if it goes back up again he will need to be seen for IV fluids and she will start an antibiotic to prevent any secondary infection that may arise. At this point his temp has come down to 103.2°F  WHEW… I am really relieved!

We head over to the vet to pick up the meds and stop at Tim Hortons for timbits (Rufus’s favorite) and he wouldn’t touch them.  His fever is still high and he looks pitiful.  We get back home and he heads back over to his pillow and lays down.  The morning progresses and he gets worse and worse. His eyes are sunken in, his fever spikes back up to 103.9 and looks basically like death warmed over.  He didnt want to eat, drink or get up. He was still running a fever.

Since the vet had told me that if he isnt feeling any better to call her before 1:00 to discuss. At 12:45 I called because his fever had spiked again, he was panting so hard and couldn’t cool down. He was very lethargic and refused food, water and basically wouldn’t move. She starts in with the “C” word again…. “we dont know why his fever is… take him to the internist on Monday or to the emergency vet for an ultrasound of his abdomen” whwhwhwhat?! At that point I am totally freaking out again.

So she calls in an antibiotic prescription to Kroger and tells me to put rubbing alcohol on his pads (dogs sweat through their feet, the only place they sweat, and the evaporation of the alcohol will cool him down quicker) give him the pepsid and continue to monitor his temp.

Fast forward 40 min at Kroger… he is standing by the door waiting on me when I get home, wagging his tail – no limping or favoring. I take his temp, its down to 101.0° and hes up moving looking a little less pathetic. They anti inflammatory must be working. He eats with a little coaxing and actually wrestles with Brutus for a few minutes then goes and lays down on his Karma Charms bed. By 6:00 his fever is back up to 102.3° and bed time it’s 102.9° hes a little lethargic and his eyes still look bad. He eats dinner after i put a few spoon fulls of veggie soup on it and mix it up. He goes up stairs with out coaxing and isnt hesitant on the stairs at all.

Sunday morning he looks normal. I gave him rimadyl just a a precaution.  His eyes are bright, wagging tail, normal temp, ate breakfast with out any coaxing, ran outside and danced around for belly rubs from the neighbor kids, just happy oh AND THE BIG ONE… he barked and whined at the door when I took Brutus out. He felt too bad to care whether B was outside with me or not… At that point we are over the worst of it. THEN… Tuesday he isnt real interested in food and his fever spikes up to 103.0°F again.  His eyes looked bad and he’s lethargic. UGGG – not again!

He has been fine since, eating, drinking and just being Rufus.  And in a nutshell, that’s the ups and downs of my roller coaster weekend!

Paws crossed we are done with this nasty virus.