5C's Que Pasa

We had no idea that she had been suffering until last night when none of the C’s slept.  I was awoken about 11:50PM by a low moan repeated over and over again.  I finally woke up enough to realize that it was Caeli.  She just kept whimpering.  The girls sleep between us in our bed  So it was just a matter of reaching over to comfort her.  That did not work.  She wanted to get up.  I put her on the floor and she went to the door.  Out she went to do her business.  Back to bed, Colin never woke up.

About an hour later at 1:00AM I heard the moaning yet again.  Both Colin and I got up.  We used a large flashlight to see what we could which was not much other than she kept peeing and pooing or so we thought.  Back to bed.  More intense whimpering at 2:10AM.  Colin took her out this time.  Carmeh got up as she wanted to know what was happening to her sister.  This time Caeli wandered the lawn for close to ten minutes.  Finally the four of us were tucked into our comfy king bed once again.  Only two hours later at 4:20AM Caeli indicated she needed to go out.  What was going on?  Had she eaten something bad yesterday?   Finally we settled in once again only to do a repeat at 6:10AM.  I had to get up at 7:00AM, I was tired.

So I got up at 7AM and had my shower.  Colin got up but both the girls stayed in bed.  We thought that perhaps Caeli had rid herself of whatever was ailing her.  She asked to go out at 7:55AM and I said to Colin that we should collect her urine just in case.  He did using a long handled large spoon.  There were just a few drops but they were bright red blood colored 🙁  Something was wrong and likely it was an infection.  Our vet opens at 8:30AM so we quickly dressed, fed Carmeh and left her at home alone as we rushed unannounced to the vets.  Carmeh must have been unsettled being left behind but what could we do.  We got to the vets and had to wait about 15 minutes for her to arrive. For those who know our vet, it was the daughter Jessica and not Susan.  Sadly we had to turn Caeli over to her and dash away.  I had a major previous medical appointment that could not be missed or rescheduled.

A few hours later we were told that Caeli had a severe E Coli bacterial bladder infection and that she was resting comfortably.  We were still close to 2 hours away.  Meanwhile a neighbor had come in twice to check on Carmeh but she refused to get off the bed.  We had asked the neighbor to check as we didn’t think that Carmeh had done her morning business yet.  Just another small worry for us.

This is what we saw when we arrived at the vets at noon. We took this peeking around the corner. The staff were all busy and it was a while before anyone spoke to us.

Meanwhile Caeli had started to cry or what I call her moan/whimper sound.  We finally were able to speak with someone who finally said that Colin could just go in the back and get Caeli out of the cage.  Meanwhile I was getting a lot of I don’t knows to my questions.

We had brought her favorite bed with her thinking she would be more comfortable in it once we left her alone.

She kept crying and Colin decided to take her outside to pee.  Turns out that she had not been out to pee since we left her over 3 hours earlier.  She did pee and it was a lot and the kleenex he used to wipe her with was blood stained.  I just wanted to take my girl home.  There must have have been a lot happening behind the scenes before someone came to check us out.  Bottom line she had an E Coli infection that they have no idea how she got it and it was not likely a result of us being in Mexico.  She received her first antibiotic at 10:30AM but it would take 12 hours to kick in.  I wish I had been able to stay as I would have insisted on an injection as it is quicker acting.    I did insist that they send her home with some pain medication.  It was a lot of back and forth as it turned out that the vet was in oral surgery ( tooth extractions ).  I did get pain meds and as I left asked that the vet call me later at home.

It broke my heart to see Caeli pacing up and down our lawn trying to pee every minute and stay in that stance for a while trying her best to eliminate what wasn’t there.  She was dehydrated, she had had nothing to drink since 7PM the evening prior.  I was sure that she was in pain.  Many of you have had bladder/UTI infections know how very uncomfortable and painful that is.  She wandered the yard for over an hour before she finally fell into a deep sleep.

She slept in her bed on the front step for a few hours.

It was so cute as Carmeh kept coming over to check on her.  Our landscape fellow came to cut the lawn and she only lifted her head.  I then began to worry about side effects from her meds.  Turns out that one of the side effects from the antibiotics is lethargy.  However she could just be exhausted from her long sleepless night.

Lots of worry with no solid answers.  It is so difficult when you don’t know what is happening.  The vet did call me later and explained that she had palpated Caeli’s bladder and thought it to be close to empty so that was why they did not take her outside, that did relieve me somewhat 😯   They will check back with us tomorrow, if the meds are not working we will change them.  We also need to check her urine in 7 days to be sure that she is  totally clear of the infection, if not, an ultrasound would be the next step.

What a fright the past several hours have been.  At this very moment she is inside and resting after spending 30 minutes trying to void, poor sweet baby.  As for myself the wine is flowing freely and Colin is gorging on peanut butter pretzels.

Hoping for some solid sleep tonight 😥