The possibility of life without my service dog scares me

[Justmehere]

She's pooping (but hasn't pooped it out yet) and acting totally normally. They said they could still watch her, but I am headed home with her and her regular vet is going to call and check on things - I think mostly for my brain. It's likely all moving just fine through the large intestine by now. And hopefully managed to get through this with just a few hundred dollars in vet bills and not a few thousand. (Trying to find the bright side.)

I set new clearer boundaries for friends with her too.

I think I also realized how many other stressful things I have on my plate and some of this was probably my stress cup overflowing about many things and not just fear of losing my dog. I'm becoming more functional albeit so tired.

 

[desiderata310]

set new clearer boundaries for friends with her too.

I am SO glad to hear you say that- for MY sake. I honestly feel like I am sometimes mean about how little I let Charlie associate with other dogs. I won't even let him go to the dog park or the dog beach unless it's almost empty. I kept telling myself that it was 'all about me' but I am beginning to realize that I'm just hyper protective of Charlie. :bored: Hell, I've determined that some dogs that we used to play with are 'bad influences' and won't allow Charlie to play when they are around because of the way he behaves AFTER.
Yeah, helicopter dog handler.
But I'm beginning to understand that's a good thing for SD's.
Glad she's doing better.
Try to get some shut eye soon.

 

[scout86]

I think I also realized how many other stressful things I have on my plate

That sounds like a pretty good thing to notice too. (The kind of thing that often doesn't appear on a radar screen.)

Glad to hear she's doing ok so far! (I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea that there's a company out there that thinks cooked pork bones might be safe treats for ANY dog.) Last, but not least, one of the things my ex & I used to argue about was "pork chop bones for dogs." He thought it was fine...... All the dogs, medium to large sized dogs, survived the bones that I couldn't manage to get away from them. I hope that's encouraging!

 

[Deleted member 12723]

So happy for the both of you to get through this one. :hug::hug::hug:

 

[Recovery4Me]

Thinking of you and your buddy.:hug::hug:

 

[Justmehere]

Thanks all. We saw her regular vet today. She has a little gastritis from the marrow that was bad. (Omg, so many things wrong with this bone. This company seriously needs to go away....) @scout86 - yes that does help to know that the dogs survived! The vet explained too that it's the long splinters they really worry about. She has a squarish chunk and a smaller chunk. They are big, well to my brain they seem gigantic... and the vet says the edges are sharp and that's worrisome, but the acid softens the edges and it's not long shards. So there's a pretty reasonable chance she'll just poop it out.

Her vet went through the x-rays with me and examined the rest of the bone and said to wait on surgery just yet, but if she gets any worse, bring her back fast. It's right on the edge. I hate not knowing for sure what to do. Vet said they would wait, so I'm waiting. I hate the waiting.

Her normal vet knows she's a ptsd service dog and handles it well. My dog is not as perky as normal but it's a hot day. Plus, my dog is kinda trying to alert over my worry. I am doing a ton of stuff now to chill my nervous system. We are home. It's cool and dark and there is music playing. I bought myself some time to just try to lower my anxiety tonight and work on things from home.

One more night of watch and see.

I think I'm scared of losing her for all the normal reasons and because I don't really have someone else in person that I lean on in hard moments right now and we had already been working on that in therapy... she never judges me for symptoms. She just stays by me, leaning into me, until I'm ok. I don't want to lose that.

 

[Justmehere]

Thank you to all for being there for me. One of the things that is helping me chill is remembering I'm not alone. If she did die, I think I'd be beside myself. But I really wouldn't be totally alone. It helps deal with the core anxiety to connect with people about this. To remember I'm not actually totally alone.

Thank you deeply.

 

[anonymous]

I'm glad she is going to be okay.

 

[Justmehere]

I hope she will be ok but the vet said we won't know until she poops the pieces out which hasn't happened yet.

 

[scout86]

Depending on how big they were, by the time they get all the way through, they might not be easy to see. (My fingers are still crossed!)

 

[Sideways]

:inlove:Labs! I did have a friend with a lab that decided to eat a (very poisonous) cycad. Poor thing needed surgery, but was okay in the long run!!

I hope you can keep well-meaning friends in check in the future. People who have food in their hand when they see my dog want to instantly feed him. And it's hard to deal with because sometimes you've really gotta pounce on them because of how quickly it can happen, and becomes often the person becomes upset: "All I wanted to do was give him a treat"! Yup, and I become the monster dog owner that doesn't allow my dog to have treats.:oops:

Your furball is gonna be okay. It sounds like surgery is now an unlikely worst case scenario, which is great news. The vet is there if things go pear shaped, but dogs really do eat all manner of things they shouldn't and live to chew another day:hug:

 

[Justmehere]

Thanks for all the reassurances. I really need that right now.

Omg. I was just on the front lawn, telling my dog, "Go potty." (she is trained to go potty on command being a service dog.) Then I followed it up with, "Please please poop. Your mission is to poop!"

A new neighbor walked by in that moment.

So....yeah...

She did poop for the first time in 36 hours which is slower than usual but good. Means things are still moving. :)

Edited to add: sorry for the TMI poop-centric post.