Oh Scouty, what have you done???

As fun as Christmas was for us, I think Scout was feeling a little left out and bored. On Christmas Day, Barry let him outside for a bit and found him later chewing on one of our chickens. We were really surprised by this, as he usually leaves the chickens alone! Anyway, Barry saved the hen from Scout's clutches and then later found her dead in the coop. Add to that another hen that appears to be missing... DAMMIT! I started out with 12 chickens and now I am down to 5. Looks like I will be shopping for chickens soon.

So on with the story. Barry left for his hunting trip the day after Christmas, and Scout had been pretty low-key all day. That night, I was totally looking forward to an evening to myself....get the kids to bed, maybe have a nice hot bath, read in bed for a while....you know what I mean. Well, I got to bed a little later than I wanted due to a long overdue phone conversation with my friend Sheri. We had been having trouble connecting through the hustle and bustle of the holidays, and were due for a long chat! So, I didn't get to bed until 12:00-12:30. At 2:30, I woke up for no reason in particular, just couldn't sleep....WHAT???? I fantasize about sleeping!!! This was distressing, to say the least! So the longer I can't sleep, the more pissed off I get. Finally at 3:30 am, I gave in and started reading. At just this moment, Scout started barking. I ignored him, hoping he would go back to sleep...which it appears he did. That is until 5:00 am, which coincidentally, was just about the time I fell asleep. So I was annoyed, with a capital A. I stomped down the stairs and asked him what the hell the problem was. And that was when I noticed the vomit in his crate. UGH.

I let him out, and not feeling like cleaning it up in my tired and surly mood, I let him out and then let him come upstairs to lay down in my room for the rest of the morning in hopes I could get some more sleep. NO, it wasn't meant to be. Noah woke up twice and then Scout threw up again, this time on my new bedroom carpet. Shit. Now I was forced to get up and actually DO something! And through all of this drama, the kids were still sleeping....

So I took Scout outside again, and then he came in and laid down on his bed and went to sleep. Seems everyone was sleeping at their leisure but me...what the hell?

When I finally gave up the ghost that I would ever get back to sleep, I got up, made breakfast, and waited for the kiddos to get up. During that time, I talked with my friend Deetra and we made plans to run into Columbus to run some errands and do some returns. Since we had to go to the same stores, we decided to go together. Right before she got here, I went to the basement to crate Scout and there were no less than 4 piles of MORE dog puke! It appears he had eaten some of the cat's food and wasn't able to keep it down. Break out the steam cleaner for the 2nd time....

He appeared fine after that, so I went ahead and crated him and we left for our shopping excursion. When we got back, the kids went down to let him out and he had thrown up again in his crate. No biggie, I cleaned it up and asked him if he was ok. He just looked at me and drooled long, thick strings of drool. Poor baby...he was nauseous. By 5:00 he was throwing up nothing but mucousy blood. OMG, did I get worried! I immediately called the vet and they said to bring him right in. So I did, and he perked up quite a bit when he saw the other dogs and was more than eager to play...I felt better about that immediately.

So the vet checked him out and said he appeared fine in all respects (normal temp, normal gums, no tenderness in the abdomen), but she was definitely concerned about the bloody vomit, or vomity blood, or whatever you want to call it. She suggested that he be monitored overnight, and since they are not a 24 hour hospital, I would have to take him into Hilliard. Oh JOY. But, I am not messing around here with my sweet pup, so off I go...and my good friend Deetra volunteers to go with me for moral support, and her sweet hubby Shawn watches all 3 kids for us.

Now the 24 hour clinic in Hilliard was AWESOME, let me just say that right now. Everyone we dealt with was warm, caring, and professional. I just loved the vet. She was very upfront, honest, and calm. They did an exam, bloodwork, and some x-rays to see what was going on. He was healthy in all respects except for the fact that his stomach appeared full, even though he vomited all day and hadn't eaten at all. This was the worrisome thing. So, she said he needed IV fluids because of all the vomiting, various drugs to help with the nausea, and overnight monitoring...in fact he will be there until Saturday morning at the least. All this and $900 later, I left without my dog... and still no definitive answers. Kendall fell to pieces when she realized I didn't have Scout with me and I had to rock her to sleep and put her in my bed. None of us got to bed before 11:00.

So this morning, the vet called at 7:00 am to tell me he had perked up a bit and hadn't vomited all night, but he is still salivating. Also, his updated x-rays show his stomach is still full. They will see if he is interested at all in eating today and see what happens, but she is thinking he will have to have surgery if whatever is in his stomach doesn't dissipate or pass. And this will cost "a couple thousand dollars" for a dog his size...86.6 lbs to be exact. So anyway, I guess we just doubled the Christmas budget...LOL. Whatever...it's just money. We'll pay the darn bill and cut out some unnecessary expenses for a while...you do what you have to do for the ones you love, right?

Oh Scouty, what on earth did you eat???? Chicken feathers? Chicken bones? A toy? A ball? Who knows....but I guess we'll find out sooner or later, won't we???