Before I tell you this story, I will say that everything ends happily.
Sookie is our elderly Ye Olde English Bulldogge, otherwise knows as the orc dog. She is beauty, she is grace, how can you not love that face?
She is going on 13 years old. Her hips and her knees have arthritis. She moves around solely because of the steady regimen of fivovet, gabapentin, and osti, a joint supplement, which Gordon administers to her every morning via a hot dog. We started her on smoked sausage at first, because Sookie, despite eating rocks and random crap, is a master of spitting the pills out. Hiding them first in her favorite sausage and then in hot dogs is the only way we can get her to take it without shoving a hand down her throat. The morning pill ritual became known as sausage time. Occasionally Sookie will drag herself into the kitchen and sit because it’s sausage time and she would like her treat, please.
Several days ago, I woke up at 4:30 am and couldn’t go back to sleep. After rolling around for a while, I checked my phone and it was a good thing I did, because Kid 2’s house had sprung a leak and she was in a panic. That’s a fun story for another time, but to summarize, it turned out that a 2×4 fell because of a faulty nail and dented her AC pan. It ended happily, but threw me into a sleep deficit for a few days.
A couple of days later, I wake up in the middle of the night again. I check the clock. 4:30 am. What is it about the 4:30? I hear a choking sound, which, as any dog owner will tell you, is code for get up and let your dog outside. I open the primary bedroom’s door, let Sookie out, and flick on the lights, resigning myself to cleaning up some dog vomit.
Blood. It’s like a crime scene from a gory police procedural. There is blood on the floor, blood on her pillow, blood, blood, everywhere is blood.
OMG, our old dog is dying.
The other two dogs are like, “Hey, there is blood. How cool.”
I check on Sookie. She is standing in the yard in the dark. I grab peroxide, drown the worst of the blood on the floor – yay, tile, mop it up with paper towels, so no cats or dogs decide to taste it. Then I wake up Gordon, tell him there is blood, and then we both go to get Sookie in.
Sookie walks very slowly because of her arthritis, so it takes awhile. Finally we bring her in and she takes two steps inside the house and collapses. Her paws are bloody, her chin is bloody, everywhere is bloody. I’m sitting on the floor, with peroxide and paper, my hands in latex gloves, and frantically trying to clean her up to see if it’s a wound of some kind.
There is no wound. The blood is coming from her mouth. It must be internal bleeding.
By now it’s past 5:00 am. The only emergency vet in range is on the other side of New Braunfels. It will take almost an hour to get there, and when we do get there, we will have a long wait. She is 80 lbs of dead weight and Gordon, who normally would pick her up and carry her, can’t do it because of his shoulder.
I’m crying because the dog is dying. Cleaning and crying and cleaning and…
Sookie sighs, gets up, and goes to the kitchen to drink water.
We watch her drink and then she sits by the island.
Sookie: Sausage time?
Us: WTF.
Gordon gets a chunk of chicken and tosses it to her. She snaps it out of the air and eats it.
Clearly the news of her demise was greatly exaggerated.
We decide to wait for our regular vet to open. There is no point in going to the New Braunfels vet, because not only will it take forever to get down there with traffic, but she took food and water which means she will be triaged to the middle of the line, so dogs hit by cars and bitten by rattlesnakes can get life-saving care.
Our vet opens at 7:00 am, I call them, they get us in first thing in the morning.
Sookie has infected teeth. There must’ve been an abscess. It ruptured. How did a cup and a half of blood come out of it, I have no idea, but that was the answer.
Sookie was scheduled for the dental surgery. This was very stressful all around. We weren’t sure if she would come through the surgery okay because of her age, but her quality of life was a factor and unchecked tooth decay can lead to gum disease and jaw infections. Cue a week of tense waiting.
She had the surgery yesterday. 13 extractions and almost $3,000 later, here she is back to living her best life on her pillow.
She is very mad at us. She occasionally groans, and right now she is not in the study with us because she chose to lay in the living room by her lonesome. However, she took soft food and water today so we are on the road to recovery.
In other good news, the final edit of This Kingdom was accepted and we are off to the copyedit. Much rejoicing all around.
Here is hoping for a few days of not waking up at 4:30 am because of some crisis.
I’m rejoicing with you for for Sookie’s recovery and the final efit of The Kingdom! faithful.member of the BDH. enjoy your break.
We have a cat lucky we only had 2 teeth pulled with our cleaning and no blood
oh bless! sooo much drama! happy everyone’s ok. hope y’all have much needed rest and calm.
Yay for Sookie!
Yes, dogs can hold a grudge like no one else, except maybe cats. Well, unless that dog is a Lab, and then they don’t know how to hold a thought for 2 seconds, much less long enough for a grudge (the loveable derps).
Aww, glad she’s OK but yes, that sounds pretty nerve-wracking.
Also YES to tile floors. The place I’m in now has slate tiles and it’s such a relief when it’s hairball time for the cats. (It’s also hard to heat in winter, but excellent in summer.)
Oh. I have so much sympathy. In our case, it was stinky pus drool that came out, not blood. But it was terrible and frightening.
I have since found that a small sheet of nori (for our large dogs) twice daily, keeps their teeth much cleaner.
Wife finding a claw in the floor “This the biggest claw I’ve ever seen. OMG, someone has lost a toe. We need to count Toes”.
Me after puzzling over it for a few seconds “That’s not a claw, that’s Orangies Tooth. Right Tooth. Sissy has punched his tooth out. ”
Sissy is the only lefty in the house, so the culprit isn’t hard to figure out. She punched him, and it got infected and we missed it.
eek, and did you not know 430 is the new 730 – I am there each morning trying to gain at least an extra 10 min of sleep a day…..groan.
aw, i’m so glad she is ok! and i totally understand the panic at seeing that much blood! especially at her age.
i had a dog who never walked anywhere, he always ran at top speed. ZOOMZOOMZOOM!!! he would ‘superman’ over the 4 steps down from the porch to the backyard, just a flying leap. that goofball cracked or broke off one of his nails 8 times over the nearly 14 years i had him. 8 times!!!! i can’t tell you how many times i saw a blood trail on the carpet and had to track him down wondering what the hell he did THIS time. and checking all his paws and all his nails to find the bleeder. the worst it ever got was when he figured out how to wiggle and push his cone far enough back on his neck to be able to reach his back foot in spite of the cone. he kept removing the bandages and licking the nail until it got infected and then i had to soak his foot twice a day and pill him with antibiotics. in the end he had to wear a muzzle for a week so he’d leave the darn bandage alone. i learned that taping baby socks over the bandage with elastikon tape made the bandage harder to get to and remove. i have a HUGE box of dog wound supplies because of him that will probably last the rest of my life.
i am also familiar with waking up to the gagging sound and grabbing the dog and yanking them to the edge of the bed (before trying to get them outside) so if they puke it lands on the floor and NOT the down comforter. nothing wakes you up faster than that sound!
and thank you for the adorable pictures!
Oh, poor Sookie! Teeth are the worst. We just had our Pema in for her regular dental check (always under sedation in case they have to do an extraction), and for once in her six years, she did not need an extraction. Yeah, us! However, brushing a dog’s teeth is not easy, even with one who’s been having it done since she was a wee pup.
So glad Sookie is on the way to recovery. And yes, how could we not love that face?
I’m so glad you gave us the heads-up that all would end well. Poor Sookie! That absess must have hurt like the dickens. And how horrible/terrifying/traumatic to wake up at that ungodly hour and find puppy’s blood all over!
I’m so glad she did well in surgery and expect her forgiveness will come soon.
And hopefully the 4:30 a.m. wakings will now end!
My elderly dog used to be good at taking medicine, but has gotten pickier as she ages. Her arthritis had gotten bad enough she was having trouble just standing up or lying down. her vet suggested a new shot called Librela. It has to be done at the vet’s office once a month, but my dogs health an d quality of life has improved immensely. I can actually see the difference the day before and after each shot.
Wow! Yay for happy ending! I will offer a maybe-strange answer to the “why always 4am?” Question. I am a natural medicine doctor (Naturopath) and part of my education included a peak into Classical Chinese Medicine, which is fascinating & a whole system unto itself. Part of that system is tracking the flow of Qi, the vital force through the body & has resulted in a “Chinese Medicine Body Clock.” (Images may be googled.) At 3am Qi transitions from Liver to Lung (Chinese Medicine organ names are not the same as Western medicine organ names & carry a wealth of different meaning, hence the capitalization). This transition from Liver to Lung is the re-setting of the body-clock cycle & SO OFTEN I hear people say that they wake up around this time (3, 4, 4:30am). Do I know what this means diagnostically? No. Is it even significantly diagnostically? I don’t know. Is it a massive coincidence? Maybe! Or maybe it’s about cosmic energy and we’re all just destined to wake between 3&5am for dramatic energy shifts. You’re welcome. And happy Spring.
Aww poor Sookie and poor Sookies’ parents. I love your animal stories almost as much as I love your book (oh the books). Whenever you are feeling it, an update on all the pups and cats (including your grand-pets the German Shepard’s and the 6 toed cat) would be so awesome (paw-some?).
Glad Sookie is on the mend. That must have been terrifying. So much easier if they could tell us what hurts and where the problem is!
My 16 year old cat has arthritis and Stage IV kidney disease. I no longer get his creatine levels checked because if I go by that he should have died six months ago. He views lab results as a personal insult. IV fluids every two days and he’s only a little wobblier than this time last year. He hit his 14th adoption anniversary yesterday which I did not think would happen. I have cried rivers over him.
In Canada you can get Solensia injections to treat arthritis in cats. Not sure if they are for dogs as well. A little pricey at roughly $100 each month but Kinsey is able to move a lot easier. And by easier I mean he bounds up the stairs to fetch his favourite toy (Baby) and then drags it down every last stair screeching so loud the neighbours must think he’s being tortured.
Our furry, scaled, feathered friends are amazing. Everyone here is amazing for the love we have for our friends.
Sookie is a lucky girl.
Ugh. That’s awful. I am so sorry. That’s the icky side of pet ownership.
I will pray you can get some sleep. I need to go to bed EARLIER but like, it’s that bedtime revenge procrastination thing of I can’t wind down until the kids are out and then I need to enjoy the quiet and maybe my partner and then it’s stupid late and I’m awake but don’t worry I’ll be up early anyways bc work and kids. *sigh* May we both get good sleep, and less drama.
I’m happy Sookie is going to be fine. It’s so scary when an older dog (or cat) has an issue because you’re never ready to face the thought that this problem can mean saying goodbye.
I am glad your Sookie will be ok.
So glad Sookie is okay. Thank you for the ‘alls well’ at the end.
I am also glad to hear that The Kingdom is moving to the next stage.
For those of you with animal companions with joint pain, a frankincense & myrrh supplement recommended by her vet helped my elderly pup.
I am so glad Sookie is okay!
Most of the costs of life are in the last few years, people or animal.
That abscess must have hurt! Poor girl.
And YAY on the book getting approved!
Your dog has a beautify colored pelt. As another old thing I think she has a right to be grumpy the older we get the less we like to be messed with.
I totally relate to this post! I have two labradors, both with hips and elbows, and on regular medication – theirs is via pate – I shove the pills in and feed on a suitably blunted knife. It used to be cheese triangles, but one of them got fussy….! He’s the one that also winges for cuddles!
So glad to hear Sookie is OK.
Sookie’s okay, YAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now, for the humans ……*offers calming tea and restorative tasy biscuits*
Thank you SO much for the happy ending spoiler!! I love your stories, but don’t think I would have made it through this one without it. Best to you and Sookie!
Prosciutto is wonderful for wrapping pills in because it sticks to itself like plastic wrap. Far better than any other cold cut. Yes, my dogs are spoiled.
Our animals are important to us. I hope for all good things for Sookie.
Very happy to the hear the outcome of Sookie. Beaker (Mandy) is 13.5 now, and every night I wake up to check she is breathing. Don’t get me wrong, other than every tooth in her head being broken (the evils of raw bones in her younger days) she is very healthy. She’s part of the Loyal Stay Program, and I’m thinking she didn’t get the placebo. But, she’s slowing down, she’s either deaf or she is ignoring me, and she’s so gray. Still, she’s training, and trialing, and loving all the things. You might want to investigate this for Sookie. I’m VERY impressed with it, though I’m not sure how they handle variables.https://loyal.com/clinical-trials
Our cats have had tooth resorption problems and occasionally have to have extractions–surprisingly well tolerated with good interest in food within a day or two. Apparently it’s a Thing with domestic shorthair cats. I hope it turns out Sookie’s arthritis improves with getting the chronic infection out of her system.
I started my cats on Cerenia for arthritis and back problems, which comes in a monthly injection. Less Gabapentin. I sympathize.
My heart goes out to you all. Had something similar happen 4 years ago and I made a full recovery!!!! No one gives me hot dogs though!! May your sleep be dreamless for the next couple of weeks.
I love Wookiee and you and Gordon for being awesome caregivers. Keep up the love circle.
I’m a nurse. And while I can’t truly explain the physics of how 6 drops of blood can cover the floor of a 12 x 12 room, I have cleaned up the evidence of it doing exactly that over and over.
At first I thought you were going to say she died! I almost didn’t read it all😁 My Chihuahua-Pug is almost blind, deaf, and a little senile at night.She’s almost 18 and I’m now frantically checking if she’s breathing every time she sleeps even though she’s pretty healthy.The last years are so hard.
🥰🥰🥰
That’s why I said that everything ended happily up front. I wouldn’t do that to you.
We had an emergency pet visit about a month ago (ended happily). I am so glad that it worked out for you. Fur baby’s- so stressful when things go wrong.
o my gosh… you must be an author, despite knowing there was a “good” outcome, I was reading that whole description of the scene and getting all concerned and anxious…. I’m glad she’s OK.
Elderly dogs are tough. We have a 13 year old English Mastiff. We call his hot dog treats “scooby snacks”. Last year he had a series of nose bleeds, we spent a fortune on bleed clot, vet visits and trips to Texas A&M (an excellent Vet school in Texas) that suggested tying off his carotid artery on one side😳. It finally stopped but mobility is now becoming an issue. He’s such a happy dog, in spite of everything. Dogs are like your children. You just love them.
solensia injection, not cerenia as I commented earlier. 🤦🏻♀️ Yes, just pulled up at the vet so at least I know what to get them at the key moment.
Now it will be mashed hotdogs or sausages in the morning. I hate when the pups are I’ll. At least with kids they will tell you in graphic detail( once they reach talking age). I have a son with Apraxia of speech so I now know ALS for vomit, diarrhea, and other fun bodily problems. Hopefully things will settle for you soon.
Monthly injections of Librela for my arthritic dog have been a godsend. 12/10 recommend.
My 16 year old dog has perfect teeth. Her ver said so.
Her secret?
Go to a butcher and buy beef tendons and marrow bones.
The tendons act like brushes and floss and the marrow bones are extra nutritious. Take the bones away when they get too small.
My butcher gives me the tendons and the bones are a $1/lb.
Impress your vet!
what could be happening at 4:30 that’s waking you??? was it the equinox???
I wake up at 4:30 am during tax season, when there are all those tax returns that I have to do something with before April 15
Bless Sookie what a sweetheart xxx Sausage time is a good sign 🥰🐾
I have lived through a few of those early morning adventures. I so happy for you that the story came around to the pillow life for Sookie. (and all the pics were fab! ty!)
I’m so sorry that Sookie gave you such a fright! One of my cats did something similar by randomly tearing off a toenail and also getting blood everywhere. He did not appreciate me grabbing him to swab the sore toe with vet-approved antiseptic spray.
Gotta love pets and their emergencies!
So glad Sookie is okay.
Wish you peaceful sleep and fast recovery for Sookie! My older dog is 13 years old and I understand perfectly well how terrifying can be even a small bad change in their health and you were faced with blood bath, so I wish you fast emotional recovery too.
So glad Sookie is recovering!
sHE IS bEAUTY THAT RuLEs THe nIGHT! hER sINGINg THE sONG oF HER pEOPLE iS a cAlL TO gREATnESS…oH hAIL oUR orC qUEEN! mAY sHE lIVE A lONG lIFE!!!!
If I could her Cry of Solitude would be my official Alarm ringtone! I’m very happy to know that she is healthy despite that scary morning…Long Live Sookie!