Maggie is the white samoyed/husky mix
Maggie had a really bad weekend. The poor dog woke us all up at 3 AM when she stumbled into some furniture trying to get to her water dish. She is an old dog now at 14 years old which makes her about 72 in dog years. My wife woke me up out of a sound sleep to let me know that she just threw up and was stumbling around. So I got up to check on poor Maggie. When I looked into her eyes, I saw them going side to side like a pendulum. She was very weak in the rear legs and kept stumbling around unable to keep her balance. I stayed up with her the rest of the night and called the Vet the next morning as soon as they opened.
The Vet was booked until Monday, so we made the appointment and prayed that it was just some virus that was kicking her butt and not something serious. The whole day Saturday and Sunday, we had to help our daughter move from their appartment to their new home, so there was not much time to baby poor Maggie. She stayed under my computer desk which is her haven or out on the porch up on the lawn furniture both days with little change in her condition. She did stop vomiting however.
So today we finally got to the Vet. Dr Leck is a wonderful Vet. He gave Maggie a very good physical examination, took some blood tests, checked her blood pressure, and then came up with his diagnosis. We were ready for the very bad news that she would have to be put down and were on the verge of tears. But the doctor told us that he believes she has a simple case of an inner ear infection. He said it was common in older dogs. And it is like a severe case of vertigo in humans. It makes you dizzy and stumble. It makes you nauseous and causes you to lean and fall to one side or the other. Just in case, he also wanted to do a couple of blood tests to be sure there were on other problems and to double check his diagnosis. So the vet drew some blood and took her pressure. We got some anti-biotics and some anti-inflammatory pills and took her home.
The most wonderful thing that happened to me was when I was about to leave for work. Maggie who did not want to leave her den under my computer desk for the entire weekend, came out to the door to see me off to work which is her usual ritual when she is healthy. I nearly lost it. I was so happy that tears started to gather in my eyes. The vet cost me a sum total of $387, but to have my special girl see me off to work for another day and to know that she would be around for yet another made it worth every penny.
