Now that we are in Texas, we obviously had to find a new vet and I did my best to find the BEST one in Cedar Park. When the vet was doing his checkup, the only good thing he really said about River was that his teeth were perfect and very clean. Besides that, he had an ear infection in one ear, his eyes looked red like he may have allergies, and his skin wasn't looking too good. So this triggered my 20 minute explanation of all of River's past problems, the main one being his skin irritations. Mr. Hunt and I changed his food awhile ago and his skin has gotten 90% better, but we just assumed he was allergic to more than one thing. That's when the doctor asked if he had ever been tested for an under active thyroid, which he hadn't. So, in order to continue to rule other things out to finally get down to the bottom of this, I agreed for him to be tested for that. Sure enough, he has an under active thyroid. Poor baby. His is very under active which triggers various skin infections, ear infections, hair loss, and gaining a lot of weight, which sounds like him. Oh, because River weighs in at 100.6lbs now and his ideal weight is 95 so with both fur babies a little overweight, we will be exercising more!
OK, long story short, River will now have to be on medication for his thyroid for the remainder of his life and we started it that night. Then in 30 days we will go back and make sure the dosage is correct and is helping his thyroid work. Then yesterday morning around 9:30am right after his breakfast, I gave him his medicine again (its a twice a day thing), and at 10:30am, I found myself running around the house crying, screaming, and calling Mr. Hunt.
Let me remind you what my River looks like normally.
At 10:30am, I was writing a blog post when River started to roll around on the floor funny and scratching his face with his front paws. I looked over at him and thought is face looked weird so I called his name. He looked at me and that's when I screamed. His face was so swollen, he almost couldn't open his eyes. I didn't know what do to. These next few photos were taken with my phone. I couldn't even think of trying to find the camera.
He doesn't even look like himself! All I could think of was his throat swelling up so much that he wouldn't be able to breathe and he would die. I know this is extreme, but you never know. I sent this picture to Mr. Hunt and asked him to call the vet and let them know we were on the way. I was too hysterical to try to call anyone but Mr. Hunt.
I took this video on the way to the vet which was about 10 minutes away. His poor face was getting worse by the minute. By the time we got to the vet, I had to walk/guide him into the building because he couldn't open his eyes! I'm not kidding!
Once we got inside the whisked him away to the back and put me into one of the rooms. Once they gave him a few shots and an IV, they brought him back into the room with me and the vet came in. I automatically assumed that the thyroid medicine caused this reaction since it was a new medicine, but not according to the vet. He thinks it was one of the yearly shots that he got or he thinks he ate a bug or got stung by a bug, but he has never had a reaction to his yearly shots before, so I'm not sure what to think. He sent us home and said his face will slowly go back to normal and be 100% better by the next morning, which is this morning.
River wasn't a happy camper on the way home from the vet.
Poor guy sat like this the whole way home, tail between his legs and all.
Once we got home though, he was acting normal. He ran to Hannah's crate and waited for me to let her out and then they played around with each other, Hannah was licking away at his face the whole time. River even tried to play with his favorite toy, the ball, but his big swollen lips were getting in the way. It was nice to see him acting normal.
Mr. Hunt was just as worried as I was, so he came home for lunch and by the time he came home, River's face was already looking a lot better. I finally remembered to get the real camera out to take some pictures.
See his eyes are still a little swollen and his lips are HUGE, like an Angelina River or something. He looks more like himself now, just maybe a heavier River.
His left lip (right in the picture) drooped down the rest of the day like this. I was keeping my fingers crossed that it wouldn't stay like this forever. I could tell it was bothering him.
I'm happy to report that this morning when we woke up he looks like his normal, happy self! No droopy lip either. I have my boy back!
We haven't given him his thyroid medicine and probably won't for a few days and definitely on a day where we know one of us will be home all day just in case he has the allergic reaction again. I know it sounds horrible to try it again if I think that's what it is, but we have to find out. I really want to be able to treat his under active thyroid so that he feels better.
Wow, this post was a lot longer than I planned but I wanted to tell the whole story, just in case I need to come back to the story one day!
One thing is for sure, yesterday wasn't a good day for him or I. I don't think Ive ever freaked out that much before. Honestly thinking you may lose your three year old puppy to an allergic reaction is not an ideal situation. Thankfully, we are all back to normal for now.
Love,
River's mommy
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