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I think I've mentioned that part of Thirteen's lack of appetite has been a tendency to sometimes throw up her food. That's been getting more frequently lately, and it's very frustrating to see her eat a decent amount for the first time in days only to watch her bring it back up an hour later. Anyway, last night she threw up twice, and much more seriously, spent the evening pacing around acting like she wanted to throw up but couldn't. She seemed really uncomfortable and restless, lying down and immediately getting up again, over and over.

There's a condition called bloat, where the dog's stomach fills up with air. I've read that bloat is lethal and comes on very fast. And trying but being unable to throw up is a classic symptom of bloat. When Thirteen started crying because she couldn't throw up, that was when I called the emergency vet.

Almost as soon as we got there I regretted going. The vet tech stuck us in a room and quickly checked to make sure Thirteen was stable, and then I knew that she didn't have bloat and we probably didn't need to be there. I thought about quietly leaving but decided against it. We were there & might as well get Thirteen checked out, and there might have been some other dangerous condition besides bloat that I was unaware of. And besides, if we had left it would have looked like I was dodging the $100 exam fee.

Of course Thirteen's symptoms miraculously went away when we walked in the door. At first she was so freaked out about being there that she just stood in the middle of the room trembling; then after about 20 minutes she couldn't stand any longer and lay down. Eventually she even seemed to relax. No vomiting or trying to vomit, and no pacing after she lay down.

The experience was much like I would expect from any ER: the staff are nice and competent, also extremely overworked. They had an actual emergency when we got there, not a "she was acting sick before we left home, I swear" fake emergency like ours, so it was a long time before we got to see the vet. A long long time, and then when she finally did see us, she had to leave in the middle of the exam for another 15 minutes. What can you do, the place was packed and they only had one doctor. (They never told me directly but it sounded like the other emergency was a cat that needed surgery.)

The vet agreed with me that Thirteen's symptoms sounded like bloat, but that if it had been bloat she would have been in shock when we got there, and would have been dying by the time of the exam. (Of course, if she had been in shock when we got there we wouldn't have waited for so long before the exam.) Honestly, if it had been bloat that would have been the end of Thirteen, emergency vet or no. As far as I know the only treatment is surgery, and I really don't see having emergency stomach surgery done on a 16 year old dog. Besides, 25% of dogs that have the surgery still die.

So, good news that it wasn't bloat. Unfortunately the vet couldn't tell us what really was going on. She said Thirteen had an elevated heart rate, probably due to her age and the stress of being there. Otherwise she seemed fine, I mean for a dog of her age and in her condition. The vet gave Thirteen an anti-nausea shot and told me to withhold water last night, then today slowly reintroduce water and food. They told me to try plain chicken and rice instead of dog food.

We left for the emergency vet at 1 am, and got back just after 3. Thirteen lay down on her bed and fell asleep immediately. She was totally wiped out by the experience. It took me a little longer to unwind and I fell asleep on the couch around 3:30. Thirteen woke me up again at about 6:45. I was worried at first as she was back to the nervous pacing and also threw up a little. But after I got her to go outside and go to the bathroom she settled down.

Georg woke up around 7:30, and he took over so I was able to go to bed. I fell asleep around 8 and slept until 12:30, a sleep full of horrible dreams. The only one I remember was my planet was about to be overrun by the evil aliens from Aliens, and we knew exactly when they were going to land, and were being evacuated. There were space marines everywhere and I was trying to decide what to take with me and pack it all before the clock ran out and the aliens attacked.

Today Thirteen has been pretty normal. Sleepy, mostly. She hasn't thrown up and hasn't been pacing. I guess this is the roller coaster our vet at Cole Park was talking about. Thirteen wouldn't eat plain rice, but when we mixed in some Nutrical she ate about a half cup. I had to go get chicken and we're going to cook some and try that this evening.

I'm pretty much a wreck, myself. I slept almost 8 hours all told, but it feels like much less. I guess interrupted sleep full of nightmares just isn't that refreshing. What do you know! I had a bunch of things I wanted to do today, looks like none of them are going to get done. Except for the trip to the store to buy chicken, I've slumped on the couch feeling groggy and watched the Mummer's parade all day. Thank god the show at WXDU which I had offered to emergency sub, turned out to be already filled by someone else.

I really hope today is not a harbinger of the year to come.