Emergency Room Trip

In the midst of my travel preparations, we had an emergency last night. I took Seymour out for his last walk of the night at about 10:30 pm. Just as we were coming home, I heard him yelp and then saw him with his leash wrapped around his legs and his front paw was bent up close to his chest. I couldn't see anything wrong but he couldn't walk. When I carried him back into the house, he started coughing like he had severe kennel cough and still couldn't walk. All my research about where I would take him if he needed emergency care had never been written down so I had no idea where to take him.

Holding Seymour while Googling "Emergency Vet Clinics", I found names of clinics where you could call in case of an emergency and a 24 hour clinic. I finally called the 24 hour clinic, which was quite a distance from my house. They were exceptionally nice and gave me the names and number of 2 clinics closer to me. I called one, got directions, put Seymour in his crate, and headed there. It was about 40 minutes away. I have never been so frightened for Seymour as I was then. I prayed that I wouldn't get stopped for speeding or going through yellow lights. I was thankful when I heard Seymour's constant coughing because I knew he was alive. OK, I'm a little dramatic but he is very important to me.

We finally found the clinic and luckily no one else was waiting. After I filled out the paperwork and gave them Seymour's symptoms, they said that it sounded like he had been stung by a scorpion. Three other animals had been in that night with the same symptoms, and one had an especially severe reaction to the sting.

They took him back to the exam room, without me, and said they would give him a shot of Torbugesic, which is a pain killer and sedative. I had given him some Children's Benadryl earlier because I was afraid he might have been bitten by something. The doctor said (and don't quote me here because I was a bit stressed) that you should give an animal 1 mg for each pound of their weight. So Seymour weighs about 7 pounds and he should get a little over 7 mg of Benadryl. I need to see if I have a dropper with mg or ml on it. I really want to be better prepared in case this happens again.

So now I have the name of the Emergency Vet clinic, the address and phone number. They were going to send my vet a copy of the records for their file. I was very pleased with the customer service at this clinic and will go back, if needed. It is called the Emergency Animal Hospital NW Austin, although they have 2 locations and the one in South Austin was closer to me.

Seymour is much better today but still coughing a little. The only good to come from this was the I finally used the crate Seymour will be using on the plane to take him to the clinic. I zipped it up so he was confined for over an hour. When we got home, I kept him zipped in the crate and put the crate next to me on the bed, so he was in it for a few more hours. He started whimpering and I kept telling him "no" until the whimpering got loud and steady. I then took him outside and the poor guy really had to "go". So, I will need to figure out when he is whimpering because he wants to get out versus when he need to "go".

What a night!!