About a week ago I noticed Betty was acting a tad sluggish, and seemed to be coughing. Since I had just vaccinated her for kennel cough, i figured she might be exhibiting some symptoms due to the vaccine. She was breathing heavily at times, but it was warm, and it seemed more like panting than anything else.
Friday she suddenly started acting really lethargic when I got home from work. She would walk down stairs, but refused to walk up and I had to carry her to the apartment after each time we went out. During our walks she would occasionally stop and start to lay down. Obviously I was growing worried. It wasn't until Saturday that I really started to freak out.
Betty wouldn't eat.
Beagles in general, and Betty more so than most, LOVE eating. They will eat anything and everything. Sometimes I could swear my dog is part goat. Part goat and part extremely dexterous 4-year-old. Anyway. So the fact that she stopped showing interest in food was a huge warning sign. She ended up eating some food late Saturday, but her appetite waned again on Sunday. When she wouldn't even eat the extra chicken I grilled for her Sunday afternoon I knew that her lack of appetite wasn't just a warning sign, it was a full-blown cry for help.
So yesterday I made an emergency appointment with the vet and left at lunch time to bring her over. Since I had just replaced my debit card and am still waiting for my new one, on the way to the vet I took out about a hundred bucks in cash from the bank to cover the visit.
Once we got there the vet looked Betty over and told me she wanted to do X-rays and blood work to make sure her symptoms weren't related to any sort of heart disease. She also told me that they had discovered that the severe kennel cough that had been going around town was in fact canine influenza and had been misdiagnosed. Obviously we were hoping Betty had the flu and not something worse.The x-rays and blood work came back and were inconclusive. Betty had a lot of liquid in one lung, which isn't good. But due to the flu outbreak the vet thought we should treat that first and see if that was the problem, since treatment is visibly effective in 2-3 days. The vet brought in three different medications to put Betty on and said she would send someone in with the bill. I went in expecting to pay maybe $120 for the office visit and whatever meds they decided she should be treated with.
Instead I was handed a bill for $500.
Obviously I didn't have enough cash so I asked if I could run to an ATM for the rest. Unfortunately, and I'm guessing this is due to my replacing my card, my daily limit on what I could withdraw still wouldn't cover the bill. Luckily I've been bringing Betty to this vet since I got her, so they believed me when I would say I'd bring the balance in tomorrow. Regardless, in the past two weeks that beagle's healthcare has consumed my entire stimulus check and then some. So much for socking away some savings or an emergency safety cushion! But what could I do? In retrospect I probably could have said no to the x-rays and blood work, but, honestly, that's only knowing what I know now. When your pup is sick and the vet tells you they need this or that test, you're going to say yes without even thinking about the cost. Dogs can't tell you where it hurts, so you have to apply a bit of diagnostic overkill from time to time to make sure of what's going on.
So there we are. Hopefully Betty does just have canine influenza, and the medication will start making her feel like her old self in a day or two. That's the best case scenario. If she's still acting like she's sick after tomorrow, we might have a much bigger problem to worry about. I'm praying that isn't the case though.
IMPORTANT TAKE-AWAY: I would add this warning, if you currently board your dog in Chicago during the day, what they thought was an outbreak of kennel cough going around is in fact a particularly nasty strain of canine influenza (one they think might have mutated from a form of equine influenza? Is that possible?).
POST-BREAKFAST UPDATE: It seems Betty did eat her food late last night -- which was actually still Sunday's breakfast -- but wouldn't eat this morning. However she did start playing with her Kong, trying to get at the meat inside, when she woke up, so I'll take that as a hopeful sign. She still won't walk up stairs, but she seemed a little more spry on her morning walk.
Top photo is Betty not feeling well, lower photo is of Pickle wondering why that beagle is getting all this attention again
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