Pray for Joy, originally uploaded by pmarkham.

We had quite a scare last week. We almost lost our beautiful Labrador, Joy, to a severe case of pneumonia.

It all started a week ago (Sunday, 1/10/2010). My wife was out of town visiting her folks, so it was just me and critters. We slept in, had a nice breakfast together, and then I took the dogs for a two mile walk. Everything seemed like it always does, except for one thing — I heard Joy cough twice. I wasn’t too concerned. Labs inhale their food, so hearing them cough just after they ate isn’t all that unusual, so I didn’t think much of it. After the walk, I grabbed a quick lunch, wished the critters a pleasant afternoon, and then went out to the farm to help my friend Steve repair some stalls the horses had been chewing on. I was gone for eight hours. When I got home, I figured the dogs would meet me with great enthusiasm at the door because it was past their usual feeding time. I was greeted with enthusiasm, but by only two of the dogs. Joy was nowhere to be seen. My heart immediately sank.

I called her name. Sometimes she gets confused about where to find me when I come in the house. She’ll be waiting by the front door and I come in the side door or vice versa. She didn’t come. Now I was worried. I started walking around the house calling her name. I checked her bed in the living room. Empty. I checked the front entry way. She wasn’t there. I walked upstairs to see if she was in our bedroom. She wasn’t. Where was she? Finally I went into our guest bedroom, a room she never hangs out in. There she was. She was asleep on the bed. The only problem was, she was more than just asleep. I called her name. She didn’t respond. I went over and touched her head. She didn’t lift it up. She was panting. She was very hot to the touch. She was completely out of it. She wasn’t able to stand. In fact, she wouldn’t respond to me at all. She was in trouble.

I quickly called my neighbor and explained the situation. He rushed over and helped me lift her off of the bed and carried her down to my minivan so I could drive her straight to the emergency vet. Something was really wrong.

We got to the emergency vet in record time and thankfully, we were the only ones there. They did a quick assessment of Joy and could see she was in a lot of distress. She did walk in to the office by herself, but she was out of it and unsteady on her feet. They decided to do an immediate x-ray of her belly and chest. They were worried she might have bloat. The thought of Joy with bloat terrified me. I lost one of my other dogs, a Lab named Emmet, to bloat just a little over a year ago.

After a few minutes the doctor came back into the room and showed me the x-ray. The good news was her belly was fine. There was no sign of bloat. The bad news was that her x-ray cleared showed that something was wrong with her right lung. Most of it was bright white on the x-ray and it should normally be dark. The most likely cause was pneumonia. In addition, Joy had a high fever — 105.8. Her oxygen saturation was also low. Normal for a dog (and a human) is 95 or better. Joy had an oxygen sat in the 70s. All of this pointed to a pneumonia. They decided to do the only things they could do. The inserted a nasal cannula into her nose to give her oxygen. They started an IV to give her fluids and medication. They gave her injections of two powerful, broad spectrum antibiotics. The only thing left to do was to wait. They told me to come back in the morning and we’d assess what to do next.

As you might imagine, I slept horribly that night.

The next morning Joy was slightly better. The fever was gone, but her breathing was no better. She still needed oxygen and the clinic she was at was closing for the day, as they were only open overnight. I loaded her into the car and drove her to the Affiliated Emergency Veterinary Clinic in Eden Prairie, which is open 24 hours. They took her in and assessed her. Her oxygen sats were still dangerously low when she was off oxygen, so it was clear she would be staying for a while. What I didn’t realize at the time was that “a while” would be almost four days.

It was four days of ups and downs. She’d get a little better, and then she’d backslide. Her breathing would improve, but then she wouldn’t eat. Finally, on Thursday evening, she had improved enough that the doctors thought it was safe for her to come home.

It is now a week after she got sick and she has been at home for three days. She is still quite obviously sick — obviously if you know Joy. She doesn’t have her usually level of energy. She spends most of her day sleeping. She gets two kinds of antibiotic pills three times a day. She gets nebulizer treatments four times a day. She can only go for short walks — not the usual couple of miles we like to do.

The good news is that she seems to be a little bit better every day. The doctors tell me it will be six to eight weeks before she is fully recovered.

I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to send prayers and positive energy her way while she was hospitalized. It was appreciated by me and by Joy. I’d also like to thank the veterinarians and the rest of the staff at the Eden Prairie Emergency Vet. They gave Joy excellent care and they were extremely nice to me and to Kathy, Joy’s previous owner. We both called multiple times a day and visited multiple times a day. They were gracious during each and every call and visit. I’d also like to thank Helping Paws, the organization responsible for training Joy. In addition to give well wishes and good advice about her care, they were willing to help out financially through their Alpha/Gator Emergency Veterinary Fund. Joy’s bill was HUGE, so it was a relief to have them help out.

For those of you looking for a good charity to assist, Helping Paws is one of the finest there is in Minnesota. Please consider donating money to the Helping Paws Alpha/Gator Emergency Veterinary Fund in honor of Joy, so there will be money available for the next Helping Paws service dog (or retired service dog) that needs care in an emergency. You can make your donation by visiting their website.