Troubled times

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Sagebrush

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Jan 13, 2014
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Stonyford, California
Hello RT. It has definitely taken me awhile to write this to you all. I know I should have come to my Rabbit Tribe before things got so far but Sage is going into surgery today.
Let me try to start from the beginning... Sunday afternoon Sage was not quite acting himself, wanting to be in his kennel instead of next to me, he is a velcro dog as well as my E.S.A., not really wanting to eat but still drinking water. As the afternoon turned into the evening when he got his next meal he started to vomit, about 6 times in total through the night. I had figured he ate some of the grass at the dog park when we went to play ball the day before. Anyway, Monday morning walk, he vomits up a sock. That explains a few things! Great he got it back out!! Looking closer at the sock, it is one that disappeared a couple weeks ago, odd... Sage perks up after getting that out of his system, So I put him in his kennel with just water to give his stomach a break while I am at work. Talk to my boss while I am there and set him up an appointment for yesterday. We do radiographs (x-rays) and see that he has something partially occluding his stomach into the small intestines. Radiologist can't tell what it is exactly, but his stomach is full of gas other than this object. We found the other sock from the pair that went missing, Hospital no slip socks. The kind that have the little rubber "Bear Paws" on the bottom and top, so that no matter how you are wearing them the "paws" keep you from slipping while the nurse has you walking the halls.... Yeah those. So the doctor who was looking at him yesterday quoted me between $1200 - $1500 just for the surgery. I just started this new job last friday, won't see a paycheck till the 4th, and there is no way I can afford that kind of surgery, I don't have that kind of money just laying around! I ask family and friends, can only come up with $600 between all of us for this surgery. I tried asking the bank, got denied due to medical bills in collections (from the car accident back in May that was NOT my fault) and my bank balance being to low. Tried Care Credit, same thing as the bank, bills in collections. At this point I considered euthanasia to keep him from suffering because at this point he is just hiding in his kennel not wanting to eat and only drinking small amounts of water.
A coworker told me to contact my former boss and see what he could do to help. Well, like I said earlier, Sage is having surgery today. My former boss is going to do the surgery for the $600. I drop him off in an hour and a half. I will let you all know how he is doing when I go to get him later tonight.
Sage on couch.jpg
 
WOW sorry to hear that. Hope he pulls through fine. We had a Golden Retriever Bass that did the same thing. We were lucky as they always passed through. I told the kids time and time again to put their dirty clothes in a hamper. They did not always do it. Anyway i was away at work for a few days, come home to find our boy Bass acting like you described. I hit the roof with the family as Bass was only 5 years old. Took him to out local Vet, X-rays were done only to find he did not have any socks what have you. But did have a twisted intestine. Surgery and $2600.00 later. We got to bring him home two days later. He was almost back to his old self. Two days later after keeping him confined to a crate. As the Vet told us no running, jumping what have you. He was acting poorly again. Back to the Vet. Twisted intestine again. The vet said he did not ant to open him up again and we agreed. We had to put him down. A very sad day. He was my daughters birthday gift when she was 5 years old. We lost him the day after her 10th birthday. It has been 6 years. We all miss out Bass. Sincerely Good Luck.
 
Your old boss sounds like a good person, bless him for helping... I'm so sorry you and Sage are going through this. I'll be crossing my fingers and sending prayers. Big hugs from me, as well! :oops:
 
I feel for you Sage and I am sending good vibes. I had a family member lose a dog recently to cancer so I am hoping that your Sage makes it through!
 
Well we are home after our very long day. Sage is laying in his crate, bowl of fresh water near his nose if he is thirsty.

We are to feed him many small bland meals for the next several days. We want to get his gut moving again. Basically he got enteritis. The doc opened him and searched as far as she was comfortable and found no socks, none whatsoever! There however was a lot of swelling in the lining of the stomach and the small intestines. She did help him to clear out the poop that he had not passed for the last 3 days though. No eating, no pooping. She said what it appears to have happened is that the sock that he did vomit up Monday morning was so big that it shocked his system, stopping it from working. So now we just have to jump start it again. We have anti-nausea meds, pain meds, and probiotics to work with. Since he cannot eat grains of any kind, he gets boiled sweet potato and regular baby red potatoes to eat since they are gentle on his stomach. Who knew that having rabbits would pay off in that he will be eating rabbit meat for awhile until we can get him back on his normal diet.

Edited to add: Thank you all. Sorry it has been a really long day and we are both glad to be home safe and sound. Sage wagged his tail as I read him your responses. Will update as his recovery progresses.
 
So relieved to hear that Sage made it through the surgery and is back home with you. You must be exhausted, both physically and emotionally. Hope you both are able to get some sleep and that Sage is feeling better soon.
 
Good news is that he wanted to eat this morning! For today, we are sticking to just small amounts of plain mashed potatoes. I'll add in some boiled rabbit tomorrow. Sleep?... who needs sleep.... well I am off Saturday and Sunday. I try to sleep then. We are heading into my job, my doc will be back and will have a look at his incision just to make sure everything is healing as it should.
 
Thank you Marinea. He is definitely improving. For a matter of fact I am celebrating because he pooped this morning!!! Incision looks great, he is eating, and now he is pooping again. Well I am off to work.
 

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