Suzie the little Internet rescue dog has a setback

Suzie's story caught my eye around Christmas time last year. A volunteer at a shelter in Ontario, Canada, felt the little white dog wasn't getting the medical care she needed, and just a day or so before she was slated to be euthanized, she got her out of the shelter.

A group of us from all over the world -- including many of my readers here -- heard her story, and helped pay for what turned out to be a pretty expensive surgery for Suzie.

Jan, the volunteer, ended up adopting her permanently, and in the last few months, the story of how we saved Suzie has been in dozens of news stories in the US and Canada. Just this month I was flipping through "Healthy Pets," the magazine distributed through veterinary hospitals all over the country, and there was a little recap of her story! Our Suzie is famous.

Unfortunately, three days ago she injured her leg. Fearing a cruciate ligament injury, Jan took her to the vet, where Suzie had a bad reaction to some pain medication she was given there (or at least, that's the assumption at present). She's been hospitalized ever since. None of the local vet hospitals have any overnight staffing, all having agreed to send their patients to a central ER instead -- or leave them hospitalized without supervision all night, which is always completely unacceptable.

The first two nights Jan brought Suzie home, but the little dog kept vomiting. She has spay incontinence, which has been easily controlled with Proin, but since she's throwing up, they've had to stop that, so she's urinating on her bed, too. Jan had to get some sleep after two nights of being up with Suzie, and there was no way to keep her in a hospital without anyone there, and just lie in her own puke and pee until someone came in the morning. So I paid for her to be hospitalized overnight at the overnight ER clinic.

We still aren't sure what's wrong with Suzie. They're saying it's a muscle injury, and everyone is being kind of stingy with the pain meds. There are no local vet specialty practices, and the nearest vet college is 6 hours away. Because of her bad reaction to the injectable NSAID she was given, they don't want to give her anything like Metacam, even though she took it before with no problems. She still seems to be in considerable pain, and we're having trouble getting that effectively dealt with.

I'll keep everyone updated on what's going on with her, and hopefully she'll be back at home tonight and on the mend. Please send good thoughts her way, and also to poor sleep-deprived Jan. And since many of you offered to help with future vet bills, I'll just say that for the moment I think we're okay, but if things change, we'll let you know!

Comments

[Kim]

Christie, whereabouts in Ontario are they located? I'm in southern Ontario and have quite a few vet connections... perhaps I could recommend somewhere they haven't thought of. If there is a holistic vet available it's possible that there is a more natural pain reliever that would help (won't recommend anything specific here... these things should be done under veterinary supervision!). It likely won't make her pain free, but it may take the edge off and ease up on the side effects.

Fingers and tails crossed for little Suzie.

[Christie Keith]

Hi, Kim! They're in Kingston... any suggestions?

[Kim]

Geez, they sure are out of the way. Kind of out of my area of influence. I'll plant a few seeds though and see what comes up.

My best advice would be to check out the Ottawa area - I know there are a high number of holistic vets in the area (especially for Ontario) and the Ottawa Veterinary Hospital is open 24 hours a day... I don't know of any holistic vets in OVH, but they are a full-service practice and you sure can't beat the sheer number of practitioners they have on hand.

Incidentally, this website http://alabamavetboardwatch.110mb.com/Docs/Addison%20Disease-underdiagnosed.pdf was posted on Dr. K's comments section during a discussion regarding NSAIDs and their improper dispensing in a case that could actually have been Addison's.

Did a quick google regarding NSAIDs and Addison's, and while I can't find anything directly correlating, for such an uncommon disorder there seems to be a high number of situations where the canine patient was either suffering from Addison's and misdiagnosed with a bum leg, or a bum leg and an NSAID reaction led to the recommendation of Addison's testing (although most of the latter turn out to be organ failure, best I can tell).

All of this is not very helpful, I realize... but sometimes it's those thread-thick connections that trigger a subsequent answer. Sorry to hear that Suzie has still not improved. I hope you get some additional answers from the attending vet.

[Jan]

Thanks Kim...I just read the information you've found on above link in your post and the correlations you've found online.
Christie is amazing and her blog is so informative.
I am Suzie's mom so thank you for googling and sharing this.
Jan

[Kim]

Jan,

Thank YOU for sticking by Suzie.

And yes, Christie is quite amazing. :O) A one woman army...

I just wish I could do more!