Sophie the Garbage Disposal

Sophie wasn't eating yesterday and then I noticed she was throwing up grass and was pretty lethargic. I thought she probably made herself sick on stolen Easter candy.

But by this morning, I became really worried. I started googling objects being caught in dog's intestines. Sure enough, Sophie sounded like she had those symptoms. I decided to call the vet this morning.

I dropped her off on my way into tutoring this morning. They told me the vet had several surgeries today and he would see her as soon as he could. Around 2 this afternoon he finally called me and said she had a corn cob stuck in her intestines. We could wait another day to see if she could clear it but he didn't recommend it. She was severally dehydrated. I had thought so. She had gone from looking like a hyper pup to an old dog within just a day.

I asked what kind if price we were looking at (because when I goggled it, people were saying they paid between $800 and $3000 for the surgery. He first gave me this long list of things they would charge me for like vet visit, IV, medication, X-rays, surgery, etc. It seemed like he gave me a list of like 15 things. I braced myself for a $2-$3000 bill. Then he finally told me I was looking at $450 for everything. Holy cow! I told him I was expecting $2000. He said well he could send me to another vet clinic in town that would charge that much. I asked him how soon he could do the surgery. He stated he would do it as soon as we hung up.

What a relief! We can have our dog back for a month's worth of tutoring money. He said she will be a totally different dog tomorrow when she is hydrated again. He also said Sophie was a very lucky dog because sometimes these type of things can do severe damage to the intestines and then it can be very complicated (and I'm sure costly) to fix. I think we are lucky she's alive due to dehydration alone.

Poor Zach has been really worried about her. He begged to miss school to take her to vet. I would have allowed him to since he wants to be a vet but I knew I couldn't stay with her.

I have now gone to the store and bought new trash cans with lids and the kitchen one even locks. Now we just have to remember to lock it. We may have to shock her to teach her to stay out of the kitchen. Her life may depend on her learning to stay away from the trash.