Last Saturday night we had to rush our 15 year-old chocolate lab to the emergency- the day before she was eating drinking I walked her playing perfectly fine for her age for the things that she would normally be doing- Saturday morning, she didn’t want her kong- the day before she was fine so she seemed I wound up making her chicken and rice and she did eat that and then went to her water bowl to drink some water and then she lay down and she seemed OK. We had been out for a little bit came back and she would not get up. no vomiting, no diarrhea nothing she went into the emergency and had 106 fever - she went on oxygen and fluids She was transferred to another vet hospital, where we’ve been working with our Doctor Who was trying to find out the source of what seems to be an infection somewhere- had X-rays and it was first noted as aspiration pneumonia- she has had a full CT scan, abdominal scan, full blood work, blood culture that we are still waiting on. She had some plasma, but we are still trying to determine the cause of the infection Has anyone had any infections in their lab that can help? The fact that it happened so suddenly makes no sense. I hope someone can offer some guidance. Our doctor is doing everything he can to help her. Her fever has gone down tremendously. It’s finally stabilizing. She is on an antibiotics, fluids: feeding tube, IV, she is finally not in the oxygen chambers since Thursday night and not on pain meds- and she’s doing well. She’s still not eating. We’ve been able to visit her in the hospital daily and they call us with three updates a day, which has been wonderful-today was the first day that she seemed to have more energy and be more alert, but she’s still not getting up. They have her laying down. They are moving her around from side to side so she does not sit in one position too long. We just don’t know what happened She still has life left in her. She loves to walk. She loves to play and we will do anything we can to help our baby girl.
Sometimes the root of infection is really hard to find, so you just have to treat the symptoms. Because of her age, they do go downhill rapidly. Sadly they can really struggle to recover from something, that in a younger dog might be quite minor. I wish her a good recovery, she will need lots of TLC. Best wishes.
Hi Lisa. What an awful shock for you. How is your girl doing now? As Edp says, these things don't always have a clear cause. It sounds like you have confidence in your vet, so I would just keep asking them any questions you have. They won't want to put your girl through extra tests unless the test result might change how they treat her - so sometimes we don't get a definite answer about what happened. I know that's hard when something happens out the blue though Sending best wishes, and hugs, for you all.
I don't have personal experience with a similar infection in a lab, but I've heard that sudden onset illnesses can sometimes be related to things like immune system issues or even something she ingested. The fact that your vet is doing such thorough testing is great. Fingers crossed they find the source of the infection quickly.
