The Gift That Keeps On Giving

We were in Mexico last week for our yearly do nothing vacation. So, Spangler had to be boarded.

We picked a local place that has large play areas for the dogs, complete with swimming pools (not that Spangler, a water dog with webbed feet has any intention of swimming). We paid the extra money for the play time and off he went and off we went.

All was well in the world.

Well, Sunday night we landed and while we're taxing in on the plane, Cody and I were checking voicemail. We both had messages from the boarding facility that Spangler had stopped eating last Friday and Saturday and they had found his incision from his stomach surgery, and his stomach appeared swollen, so they were trying to get more information.

The next voicemail was from the emergency vet clinic, the same place he had his rock-removal surgery, saying that he had been taken there Saturday and "was doing better" after some tests were run and medicines were given. They weren't sure why his stomach was swollen, but "had some ideas." She might as well had left a message saying that they were charging lots and lots of money with no intention of getting a diagnosis.

I called the vet as we're heading through Immigration and got an update. (Did you know that cell phone usage is prohibited through Immigration and Customs? Signs said "emergency calls only" but come on, my dog's stomach was swollen--doesn't that count as an emergency?) He couldn't come home, since they wanted to keep him to make more money for observation, so I finally got to pick him up yesterday.

The best diagnosis we got was that Spangler got bored while in the kennel and licked his incision so much that he caused an infection, hence the stomach swelling. 

So, in addition to the boarding fee for nine days and the extra money for play time, we had a nice emergency vet bill complete with two nights in the ICU, blood tests and four medications.

I will say that Spangler is worth it, but man, he really is the free dog that keeps on giving. I would really appreciate if we could at least wait a year or so in between emergency vet visits. Just so we could get a financial breather every once in a while.

Comments

[Stephanie Myres]

Yikes, I feel kinda of bad for you! We never have had those types of problems with Ems.

[Jack Leow]

Spangler looks like he's been through tough times in that last picture.