Company and Update on Mya

Hi, friends! It has been a crazy weekend at our house. Dad’s oldest daughter, Kristi, and her 2 sons (8 and 3), along with her boyfriend, his daughter (5) and his son (4), came to visit. They also brought the little girl (11) Dad helped raise as a baby. He considers her his granddaughter. On top of all that, dad’s middle daughter has been here with her boyfriend and his son and his daughter (not sure how old… Under 10) to visit with the company from out of town. THERE ARE SO MANY KIDS HERE!

Mom and Dad were supposed to go with everyone to the beach today. Unfortunately, Mya got real sick last night. Mom knew something was off all day. Mya was wincing at what seemed to be nothing starting in the morning. Mom and Dad figured out that she had a toothache. Sometime in the afternoon they realized her lymph nodes in her neck were swollen. Last time this happened, Mya was on baytril and it went away. Mom planned on calling the vet first thing Monday morning because they were already closed (they are only open until noon on Saturday). By evening Mom realized Mya must really be feeling sick because was sleeping through all the commotion (kids running through the house playing tag). Well, at midnight, Dad woke Mom saying Mya was shaking and warm, that Mom should check her sugar. Her sugar turned out to be ok. Mom was way more concerned with how warm she was and how shallow her breathing was. Luckily, Kristi (Dad’s daughter) has been a vet tech for around 15 years. She checked Mya’s pulse which seemed okay but they she checked her temperature – 105.3!!!! She said that for a normally healthy dog, that’s a high fever but for Mya, having the extra problem of diabetes and her age, it was very concerning. The only options were to take her to the Emergency Vet or to wait until morning and try to get into Banfield Animal Hospital at Petsmart (They’re not Mya’s vet but they are the only vet open on Sunday). Not wanting to leave her at the hospital, and feeling comfortable with having Kristi helping to monitor, Mom put ice packs all around her and she and Dad stayed up watching her sleep for hours. This morning, Mya’s fever was gone.

At 9 am, Mom called Banfield. THEY WOULDN’T SEE HER!!!  Even though her fever was gone, they said she needed to go to the Emergency Vet because she had a fever during the night. Mom was very unhappy about this. Thank goodness she remembered that Cheny and Corbin’s vet now offers emergency services. So, she called the on-call doctor. After a very thorough phone consult, the doctor told Mom that as long as Mya’s fever was gone, her sugar levels were good, and she was eating and drinking, she didn’t feel it was necessary to hit Mom with emergency services fees and to come in tomorrow morning for a regular visit. She, too, thinks it’s a tooth that’s bad. She said that if Mya’s fever came back, she would be more than willing to meet Mom at the office. Mom was impressed. The doctor could have easily taken the extra money but it just shows that she actually cares about Mya AND Mom.

Her fever hasn’t come back today (thank goodness!) and Mom looks forward to getting Mya in to see her regular vet tomorrow for some antibiotics. Before you go on thinking Mom and Dad are bad parents for not taking Mya to the Emergency Vet, please know that if they really felt Mya was in deep trouble that they couldn’t help her out of, they would take her. If the ice pack trick hadn’t worked, they would have taken her there. Unfortunately, most of you know that the doctors at those Emergency Vets aren’t the kindest and are very money hungry (not all…but MOST). Although money isn’t an issue to Mom and Dad when it comes to us, they do expect kindness and good care from the people they are paying all that money too.

Our family is asking that everyone please keeps Mya in their prayers – that her fever doesn’t come back and she gets into the vet tomorrow to get antibiotics. I will update you all as soon as I know something!