Weimaraner trauma

Phew...what a day.

Last night when we were heading up to bed Canna was a bit unsettled, whining a bit, turning round and round, generally agitated. We took the barmy army up and settled them. After our busy weekend I was off to sleep shortly after them.

I woke at 1.30am and saw that Mr R wasn't beside me so I went to investigate. He was downstairs with the now even more agitated Canna. Mr R decided to take him for a wee tour round the block to see if that would help.

We have always been conscious that asa big dog he could be susceptible to twisted gut, so while Mr R was out I got on my iPhone and started googling. Everything I read suggested that if we had the slightest suspicion we should get him to the vet ASAP.

It was now 2.30am, there was a good couple of inches of snow on the ground and it was snowing again. I phoned the vet. She didn't think he was showing all the symptoms of twisted gut but asked if we wanted to get him checked out...it would be £120 before he received any treatment. Mr R and I agreed we would rather he was seen sooner rather than later so Mr R headed down to the emergency vet and I went to try and settle the wee fella who had woken with all the commotion.

Half an hour later Mr R arrived back without Canna...he was indeed on the verge of twisted gut. They were going to try and relieve the pressure and if that didn't work then they would need to operate. They would phone us as soon as they had any news.

Time passed slowly until the telephone rang at the back of 5am. By this time Mr R & I had decided that they had had to operate and sure enough they had...his gut had twisted while they were working with him. The operation had gone well and he was recovering. We were told to phone between 10am and 11am for an update.

When we called his temperature was still a wee bit low, following the anaesthetic, so he wasn't able to be taken to our vet to be checked over. We should call back at 1.30pm.

At 1.30pm we were told he could be collected at 2.30pm and he should be taken to our own vet.

We set off to collect him at the agreed time. The poor fella was led out to us, with a IV catheter in his paw and I was handed a bag of fluids that had just been started.

We walked him out slowly to the car, it was extremely snowy under foot, Mr R lifted him into our car and we headed off to our vet.

While we were waiting to see our vet he was leaning against me all heavy and still obviously drugged from the anaesthetic and pain killers he was on. He was sitting quite awkwardly and Mr R and I helped him to move his paw forward and the poor pooch just slumped to the floor.

As he hadn't had anything to eat yet or drink we agreed with our vet that he should stay with them for the night and they could start off his IV drip again.

I think Canna getting a twisted gut was one of those things we were conscious off but thought it woudn't happen to us. I'm so thankful that I called the vet and that we took him down there in the wee small hours of the morning, had we not doesn't bear thinking about.