Don't you hate when your day starts out with your dog having diarrhea and then vomiting? Well, that is how my day started. At first I could not figure out what dog was pooping on the floor. I assumed it was little Lucky since she hates going outside in the rain. Then I realized that poor Happi had diarrhea and she was quite ill. First it was just the poop then she lost her breakfast. After 45 minutes I called the vet. They didn't seem too upset but I didn't recognize any of the girls that answered the phone and none of them said anything to me. Weird! Happi is a bit of a celebrity at the veterinarians office.
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| HAPPI |
You know I looked back and I could not find where I told Happi's story. Happi is from Palau, an island in Micronesia. An episode of Survivor of was filmed there. She has three legs because she was hit by a car when she was around 1 year old. Her life was saved by a visiting microbiologist who performed surgery on her and removed her leg. In Palau all dogs are street dogs and people put food out on their porches. Shortly after she had her surgery our vet (who is part of a group that goes to rural areas with the Humane Society and spays and neuters animals) arrived and redid her surgery the correct way and spayed her. Our vet didn't want to leave her in Palau since dogs are still eaten on the island. Our vet put her on a three day excursion of flights that brought her to America on Cinco de Mayo! Because Palau doesn't have rabies so she didn't have to be quarantined. But she did have heart worm so she had to have the shots in her heart. That was not fun.
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| TAIKO |
While our vet was in Palau, our dog Taiko passed away. We adopted Taiko when our neighbor passed away. Taiko was his dog. We had Taiko for 9 months. Taiko got very ill one night and it turned out he had stomach cancer probably for some time. His person died of cancer too so I believe they are together. Our vet was very sad that she was not there for us when Taiko passed away. When she came back with Happi, she called us and asked if it was too soon. See, Taiko was a Shiba Inu and Happi is 1/2 Shiba Inu. They look so similar. It was meant to be. Happi had never had a leash or collar on before. She had never seen a toy before or a bed. She dove into the bed and would not get out. Even though she had never been in a house before, she had one accident on the first day and that was it. She never went in the house again. Except for today! That is Happi's story! I know people always say they have a sweet dog but Happi is the sweetest dog. She has been through so much that she just takes it all in stride. In her first year she was hit by a car, had two surgeries, heart worm shots, three days of flights and moved to a foreign country!
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| HAPPI |
Today I waited about another 30 minutes and then I panicked. She started doing this horse-like thing with her mouth and I remembered Taiko doing that before he died. So I bundled her up and put her in the car. We rushed to the vet and told them she needed to see a doctor. At first the new girls were resistant then one of the regular techs showed up! She rushed Happi in the back and they checked her heart rate. Happi was fine to sit and wait for a doctor appointment. We waited about 20 minutes and a doctor saw us. They ran some tests and gave her some fluids. Her side was bulging with the fluids. She was dehydrated. I will get the results back tomorrow. They gave her some antibiotics and said no food until dinner time. I gave her some rice and chicken. I give her meds at 8 pm. She is quite lethargic. At least she isn't doing anything but sleeping. They think it is a bacteria or something. They did an x-ray and nothing is stuck or twisted. We wait until tomorrow.
I come home (because I am too late to go to my clients at this point) and the internet in my area is down. For 2.5 hours. Great. What does one do for 2.5 hours in the middle of the day? I watched TV and ate lunch. All I wanted to do was work! A completely wasted day. Especially when I am on jury duty this week. Well, jury duty call in. I have to call each night to see if I am needed. Thank goodness I didn't have jury duty today!
Insurance update: I found out that my insurance coverage kinda sucks. I have the government subsidy. Well, when you have the subsidy, many of my services are not covered because they didn't sign up for the government plan. So my physical therapy, my ankle doc, the MRI imaging place, my eye doc. All not covered. I am thinking of dropping the government subsidy part. I am not sure it is worth saving $116 per month if I all those services are "out-of-network" which means I have to pay 50%. But it isn't 50% because the services are saying they want me to pay for the full cost. If the PT costs $250 and the insurance covers $35, they want me to pay $225. Not the agreement price. When I get their bill I am going to call The-Insurance-Company-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and find out if this is right. It seems that if they have an agreed price, I should only have to pay the agreed price. Especially since I went to 3 PT appointments before they told me they are not in-network.
Today was a good day because Happi is okay! Tomorrow will be a more productive day.
Until tomorrow...
