I'll see your nose scrape and raise you...

a mysteriously inflamed colon and bloody diarrhea. Anyone think they can top that hand?

Poooooor Ella has had a rough week. As I mentioned in my last post, the trouble began last Friday with an in-crate explosion while momma was at work. It continued on Sunday when she somehow managed to scrape the black off of the top of her nose! I still don't know how she did that...all she ever gets into is toilet paper and paper towels...perhaps I need to start buying some softer tissue to prevent nose chafing?

Anyway, things only got worse from there as Ella’s bowel issues worsened and, by Tuesday, there was another crate incident and the loose stool had turned entirely to blood. It may sound strange but I actually found myself WISHING she had a parasite – at least those critters can be banished relatively easily with some antibiotics. I rushed a sample to the vet that evening for testing, hoping to get a call back informing me that the worms were back in town (she had coccidia when she was just a baby). No such “luck” – it was negative.

At that point, I was already anxious enough about Ella being sick, but it didn’t help to have incredibly insensitive and overly dramatic neighbors who were saying things to me like “Look at her…she’s crying inside”, and “See how sick she is? She’s not even jumping on people”, or “Blood? My dog lived 13 years and she never had a problem like that.” Great, thank you, that helps, I appreciate the optimism. Or there was my personal favorite…some lady walking by who witnessed Ella leave a puddle of gross on the sidewalk and made a point to say entirely too loudly “Ewwww, that dog is SICK”. Tempted to rub her nose in it – literally – I simply rolled my eyes and secretly hoped that someday she’d get the runs somewhere in public where other people could gawk at her.

Anyway, I took Ella to see Dr. Jackson last night who, after examining her, said “Well, I didn’t see anything scary.” So that’s something, I guess. She prescribed Ella some Metronizadol and a bland diet for the next week or two, so we’ll see how it goes. If she doesn’t improve or if the symptoms return after she stops the medication, then we bring her back in for further testing for allergies or IBS…and in the meantime, it’s rice and baby food for my little one. (As an aside…baby food…who knew?! Ella is already a fan of the vegetable chicken and turkey rice blends…)

Aside from my anxiety over what Dr. Jackson would find in Ella’s colon, I must admit I was also a bit worried I might be questioned about the boo boo on her nose. When a pediatrician sees a child who has a noticeable cut or scrape or bruise, you just KNOW the mother is going to be questioned…as Ella’s furmomma, I was equally worried. On my way to the vet’s office, I was trying to think of excuses…”Geez, how did that scrape get there? It must have just happened!” or “Um, she bumped into a wall while chasing after her toy”…those excuses sound so bad I’d be inclined to charge myself with suspected animal abuse. Fortunately, the nice doc had no intentions of calling CPS (Canine Protective Services) and simply said “looks like that nose scrape is healing nicely, that’s good…”.

Whew. Close call.