Coffee heat rising

Dog and Human Heading Home…

Charley in the mudOkay, so this morning my son arrived at the Show Low veterinary to discover the dog is much improved, but far from 100%. They’re releasing him to go home. As soon as M’hijito’s dad and NW (New Wife) show up, they’re heading back into town, and I gather he intends to try to get home without further incident and then tomorrow haul him to the vet, taking yet another day off work.

Here in town, my son was using the veterinary favored by NW, but the beloved vet there retired. I was SO totally not impressed with that outfit when I took Ruby there with a urinary tract infection…honest to God, the woo-woo holistic vet at Alta Vista did a better job with better results and infinitely better patient relations. There’s a veterinary at 7th Street and Maryland where I used to take Anna the German Shepherd. Although they’re part of one of those damn chains that try to bamboozle you into signing up for endless unnecessary exams and needless treatments, nevertheless the vet herself seemed to be very good and pretty sensible.

Meanwhile, the dog is still unable to walk normally. The vet up there thinks it’s neurological damage and may never entirely go away. However, if you assume he did not suffer either from heat exhaustion or nervous prostration but instead had a vestibular stroke (not uncommon in dogs), some websites say the gimpiness will clear up in a few weeks.

IMHO, though, the first order of business needs to be to find out what really happened to the dog. We know he didn’t get a fever of 107 degrees(!) from being left in a hot car and probably not even from sun shining in on him (the windows have dark tinting, and the air conditioning is highly efficient). So the possibilities are…

  • He worked himself into such a frenzy that he suffered an episode of psychogenic hyperthermia.
  • He had an infection or heartworm which led to an extremely elevated temperature.
  • He had a stroke (which probably would not have resulted in a 107-degree internal temperature, but who knows?)
  • He had a heart attack (which some sites suggest might elevate body temperature).
  • Some other factor is at work.

This looks bloody expensive, if you ask me…

10 thoughts on “Dog and Human Heading Home…”

  1. Keep us up-to-date, Funny. How was the ride home for Charley? Hope he continues to recover and gets good medical attention and your son gets good advice. He might try going to an older vet. One, the experience would help and two, they are probably not loaded down with student loan debt, so maybe it wouldn’t be as expensive. Seriously. I’ve heard some professionals are taught in school how to get the most buck for the bang. We just about fell prey to a dentist a couple of years ago. Old dentist told us that is the way the new graduates are being taught.

    • Haven’t heard yet. It’s a five-hour drive under the best of conditions. If ADOT has the Payson road torn up, too, then it’ll be more like six hours. Depending on when his dad and NW got up there, it could be anywhere between 5 and 10 p.m.

      The guy he met in Show Low was an older man.

      That’s a good explanation for the outrageous charges inflicted the one veterinary that’s fairly close to the kid’s house… When I went to them (recommended by a friend who finds herself shelling out hundreds of dollars for yanked-out dog teeth every time she turns around), I thought they were pretty exploitive. Today I read the Yelp reviews for this practice…looks like I’m not the only one who thinks so.

      Dentist also seem to tend that way: all sorts of scare stories and schemes to extract cash from your wallet. My guy, who’s on the verge of retirement, has a minimalist approach…

  2. So glad to hear Charley is recovering….The sad fact is …You may never know what happened… I can only imagine what this bill is for his care….I hope he fully recovers..

    • Hard to tell. We’re taking him to the vet down here this morning.

      I’m wondering, on reflection, if the dog wasn’t already sick at the time my son left the city. Seems to me he remarked that Charley was panting and stressed at being put in the car. He put it down to the dog’s unhappiness with riding in the car…but I wonder. Possibly the dog was having a heart attack or a stroke at that time?

  3. Possible he could have eaten something out in the yard? How old is he? MAN …. hope he didn’t have a stroke….I seem to remember one of DD1’s friends having a dog that fell ill and it was discovered the dog was epileptic. They put him on meds and learned what to do when he had an episode….BUT he was a small dog as memory serves…

    • Turns out that, of all things, eating COMPOST can cause hyperthermia and the other symptoms Charley evinced. Compost can have molds and mildew in it, and some of those are toxic.

      Reached my son this a.m. and he said he didn’t think the dog could have gotten into any compost.

      Who’d’ve thunk it? Yet it’s so: I did catch Ruby (who just flew past, headed for the back bathroom nest, bearing a mummified orange) eating some compost I’d just put down. Turns out if you have a pet or wildlife, you should fence off gardens that you add compost to.

  4. So glad to hear Charlie’s improving. Illness was one of the possibilities that crossed my mind–I understand some viruses can cause a really high temperature spike–but I’m not a vet, so that’s just armchair analysis. The compost theory seems like another strong possibility, and it wouldn’t necessarily have to be compost, but anything merrily rotting away.

    Best wishes for Charlie’s continued recovery, and your son’s continued financial health.

    • Stroke and heart attack can also cause the symptoms. In dogs, I mean. Dog symptoms are somewhat different from human symptoms of those disorders.

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