Hi, please help

[Shlee]

In in ACT and the way the system works here is that there are no 24hr vets.. There is a day time vet and an emergency night time vet. I have been transferring him back and forth.

There have been multiple X-rays which have shown a foreign object or objects in his stomach. Bone or rock or other.

The charges are for medicines, the blood work which ruled out the shunt and constant monitoring which at this stage had been about 48hrs in total..

The thing is that they are unsure if there are 2 problems or 1. They don't know whether the rock is causing the seizures or if they are 2 different problems.

He goes in tomorrow morning for surgery to remove what ever is in his stomach. I just hope he is strong enough to get through the operation.

Thank you all again for you support. It is much appreciated. Ill upload a photo for you to all see my baby Boufo.



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[Shlee]

I live in Canberra in Australia. Here is a photo of Boufo.


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[ksotto333]

What a gorgeous pup, hope he's better soon...

[bianca]

Oh my goodness I am so sorry for you both. This just sounds awful, sending good wishes for your sweet boy from Victoria

[JeanKBBMMMAAN]

He is adorable.

He wasn't vaccinated yesterday, he was given a de-wormer. It may have been a good decision based on what they are thinking it could be, or not because sometimes there is a good reason for what vets will do that seem counter to what we think, but de-wormer I am sure was probably the least expensive thing that they did there.

Is there anything that they can begin treating for - or are they - while they wait for the results to come back?

As far as cost, private emergency hospitals can be costly to the tune of $600 a day with no surgery. The poor baby is probably in the ICU, is probably getting total parenteral nutrition via IV (OP - find out how he is being fed), fluids, regular blood work, testing, etc. I think Australia is expensive having seen quotes for things it looks like California, the DC area, or parts of Canada in North America.

I have seen emergency hospital invoices that charge for EVERYTHING. Coupage, tech fees, catheter insertion and changes, per pill charge. 1 example - pneumonia puppy 1.5 days in ER was $900. Did I agree with it - no - but the rescues walked out with dogs who survived. These were situations where no other vets would take the cases because they could not provide that level of care. The OP is doing a great job going back and forth with the puppy. I am hopeful that an extended payment plan can be set up for you because this is difficult to maintain without insurance, to say the least. Our adopters get 1 free month of insurance. I do not know if there are assistance groups in Australia that could help - like IMOM in my signature here. Not sure how to find that out easily - I googled a bit but couldn't find it using the terms I was using.

Best wishes to you and your beautiful pup.

[Zisso]

Excellent post Jean!

Sending prayers for this handsome little guy!

[huntergreen]

i spent a 1000.00 for a complete blood panel and some fluid on my airedale recently at an er vet at 2 am. i went because i thought he might be in early stages of bloat. now that we know op is in australia, we have to consider that it is a different currency, may not be as bad we think.

[arycrest]

Originally Posted by huntergreen

i spent a 1000.00 for a complete blood panel and some fluid on my airedale recently at an er vet at 2 am. i went because i thought he might be in early stages of bloat. now that we know op is in australia, we have to consider that it is a different currency, may not be as bad we think.

Good point ... was curious too ... here's the exchange rate for today between the US dollar and the Australian dollar ... a little less than a .04cent difference:
1.00 USD = 0.963165 AUD (if my math is correct, the total difference is under $40).

[Shlee]

They didn't decide to operate after all. They do not think that what ever is in his stomach is causing the seizures and the trouble because he is eating and keeping the food down. They also think he may still be too weak to survive surgery. He hadn't had any seizures yesterday.

They are now thinking it could be 1 of 2 parasitic diseases. They are treating him for these from today onwards. They are doing a treatment trial using clindomycin for protozoal diseases (neospora/toxoplasma) and using predisolone for inflammation (meningitis).

We just got home from the vet. They were saying he was going very well and that we'd get him home but tonight but he just had another seizure.. It is so hard watching his little body go through so much trauma with the seizures.

They are going to try these 2 treatments for the next 2 days and then i'll try get him home over the weekend and see how he responds to being back at home..

I just don't know whether it is right to keep him going through all this pain and trauma while the vets try different things.. =( am i better to let him go and stop his little body going through so much.. I just don't know what is the right thing to do..

[RebelGSD]

I am so sorry you and the gorgeous puppy are going through this.
The emergency hospital costs around here also run $600-900/day and they charge for everything. It sounds like they are still in the dark as to what is causing the seizures. If it is a toxin, hopefully his body will clear it with time. There was thread about a puppy that had hydrocephalus, which is hard to diagnose.
Deworming is always useful to do as some of the worms migrate through the lungs and can cause severe health problems in puppies.
Sending positive thoughts...