05/13/2023
Lokis back story…
Loki was adopted from the local shelter in Feb. The shelter sponsored Loki’s adoption via a vet program that was offered at the time. We agreed and they sent Loki to a vet school where supervised vet med students worked Loki over with blood work, dental exam monitored his diet they neutered and vaccinated him. Then they tested him for heart worms … Well that test came back positive.
The shelter contacted me and told me of the heart worms. I was given the choice and they would completely understand if I chose not to go through with the adoption. I was committed I was in love. I was bawling like a baby. I knew in my heart I needed this dog. The shelter girls were amazing (they still are) they gave me a quick bit of info and a run down on how the treatment went. They are even fundraising to cover the cost of Lokis heart worm treatment!
I brought Loki home and the fun began…. If your anything like me and medically uneducated you wouldn’t know that Doxy is a powerful antibiotic that’s hard on the digestive system. Well there’s a system to the rescue dog process I will post a picture of that soon. But, basically it takes a good while up to 3 months before a dog starts to feel safe and at home and in the mean time your dog may not eat well. That eating well part is what got us. Loki didn’t want to eat he would take his meds with ham, or cheese or peanut butter but he would hardly eat we tried several foods I had to hand feed him he would eat a few bites. I thought he had to be confined completely so that didn’t help. He was becoming a depressed pup with a very upset stomach.
Loki got sick, vomiting 🤮 nasty potty 🚽 yeah my puppy wasn’t feeling well. At the vet we were given a couple new meds and we had to put his heart worm treatment on hold. The main concern was to get him eating and well enough to start the treatment. That part took a while remember that 3 month rescue dog thing I mentioned earlier. That got us good. Loki was doing well acting perfect so he went back to the vet on a Friday. Everything looked good we started him back on his Doxycycline.
Sunday Loki got sick he had an accident in the house and it was almost black. He had urinated pure blood in my floor. A lot of blood. I checked him over and his gums were cold and white he had no color response. I started calling every vet possible leaving numbers and messages and waiting on return calls. His vets voicemail was a number that answered but was pretty far off. But they recommended he go to a specialty emergency room so we drove 3 hours to get him there.
Caval Syndrome…. Read up on it…
The er vet took him back done an exam run some labs and came back with a prognosis and a extremely poor one at that. Loki had Caval syndrome. His heart worms had formed a mass blocking off the right side of his heart. He had dumped pure hemoglobin into my floor and was still doing so. They did a great job at explaining everything but when he said fatal I just couldn’t hear him anymore nothing else mattered. He gave us options euthanasia or comfort care. I opted to bring him home.
Caval is *almost* always fatal in 24-72 hours. They consulted with the cardiologist team and came up with a comfort care plan. His Caval Syndrome started April 17th. With his meds Loki is still going semi strong. He is a fighter.
