It was late at night and I was at work with my dog when I realized something was wrong. My dog was pacing and unsettled. I let her out the back, but she returned having done nothing, and began circling again and started retching.
I called my emergency vets who said I could bring her in, but I was miles away from home, at almost 10 pm at night. ‘You need to find me somewhere closer’ I said ‘now’. They filtered off the lists of emergency vets near me. My work was in the middle of the country and I had a good 20-minute journey. I bundled my dog into the back of my car and in the pitch-black sped off.
The vet seemed calm. ‘She’s probably just eaten something, but we’ll take an x-ray to make sure,’ the vet assured me.
I sat in the deserted waiting room alone. Maybe I was wrong? Maybe I had overreacted?
Suddenly the vet was calling me. She showed me the x-ray. I knew it was bad. ‘Your dog has a stomach twist’ she said ‘I’m sorry to do this but you can either put her down immediately or risk operating but your dog is in agony and will die a horrendous death within minutes if we don’t act now’.
I could hardly breathe. I looked into her sad eyes, tears pouring from my face. ‘You have to operate’ I said. The vet nodded, ‘I have to warn you’ she replied ‘ it’s unlikely she’ll survive this operation and it will cost thousands of pounds’.
But there was no contest.
Giving my dog a final kiss, I left the vets shaking and sobbing. The journey home was a long and lonely one. I never thought I would see her again.
Six hours later, at 5:15 am I got the call – she had survived 🙂
The vet told me, ‘If you hadn’t acted as quickly as you did, she would never have made it’
In two months’ time we will celebrate one year since the operation, a year with my dog I never thought I’d get!
Susie
Scotland, United Kingdom
