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!!

Keeping Seymour Safe

After giving up on the doggie car seat, I looked around for other ways to keep Seymour safe. I found what I thought was a great idea. It's a portable travel crate that folds up to the size of the round window shades you put in your car. (I don't have a picture of it since I left it at a friend's house.)

There were a couple of problems with it from the start. First, once I unfolded it, I could never figure out how to get it back into that little circle shape. So that means I couldn't get it back into the cute little zippered case, which was one of the reasons I bought it in the first place - a nice compact case! It was also so unstable in the car that when I stopped the first time, Seymour rolled around in the crate like he was going down Niagara Falls in a barrel. Luckily he was in the back seat and didn't go very far. I still think that it is a good sleeping crate if we are going to visit friends or relatives for a night. As a car crate - we (both Seymour and I) decided to pass.

I then found a crate called Port-a-Crate. It has a good metal frame on a lightweight nylon-type fabric. Seymour immediately loved it and once he went in he didn't want to come out. It could be easily seat-belted in the back seat. As much as Seymour liked being in it, he liked more having the choice of when he came out of it. The crate has a zipper and can lock with just a clip.

The first time I tried it, I was in the house. I zipped him in and by the time I walked about 5 steps away, he had already unzipped it and was prancing happily by my side. I then decided to lock him in when he was riding in the car. It took a little longer than the unzipping but before I had gone very far, he had chewed his way through the mesh on the door and found his way to his favorite lumbar position behind my back. (I have to remember to have better posture when driving!)

Seymour is not normally a chewer - all of his stuffed animals look like new - but he's never had to find his way through a stuffed animal to freedom.

It was pretty easy to sew up the crate door (and you can see my handy-work in the picture above) so I still zip it when necessary - I just decided to give him the freedom of choice - no lock.

We were beginning to collect the doggie travel necessities that worked for us.