What About Westy?

Poor Westy. He's had a lot of trouble lately that I feel I should update you on, as it's one of the many things that have been chewing into my time.

About a month before Easter, Westy started to lose his appetite. Well, not all at once. He'd go off his food for a meal or two and then would eat again. At first we thought he had a virus, and then that he was just sick of his food. We tried different things, all of which worked for a while and then he'd not eat for a day or so. He started losing weight, and in a greyhound they don't have a lot to lose in the first place. But otherwise he seemed himself, if a little tired. Nothing we could put our finger on.

So off we went to the vet. His heart murmur had gotten worse, but all his bloodwork came back okay so we tried him on some medication. That seemed to work for a bit, but then it was right back to what he was before. Back to the vet and some more medication with some talk of ultrasounds the next week, but nothing glaringly obvious.

Well after lots of back and forth to our vet and the vet specialists, we finally found out what was wrong with our furry child. And it was exactly what I didn't want to hear... you know what's coming. The 'c' word - he had a tumour on one of his kidneys. The solution was to run a few more tests to make sure his chest was clear and that his other kidney was good before doing surgery to remove the diseased kidney.

Fuck.

We did the tests last week and all was looking good. I had a friend lined up who has two greyhounds of her own to look after Westy when we head to the US next month. Surgery was scheduled for next Thursday. On Thursday night Westy was pinching Clive's chicken nuggets.

But last night Westy wasn't looking so hot, and this morning The Hermit saw blood in Westy's morning wee. Westy was clearly in pain, something which up until this morning hadn't been an issue. I grabbed the phone and The Hermit took him in. It was decided the surgery couldn't wait, not even until Monday.


Now the story has a happy ending for the time being, so don't worry. Westy made it through the surgery; as of 6pm tonight he was awake, if very groggy, and doped to the gills on painkillers. The kidney had ruptured and he was bleeding into his "retroperitoneal space". It's always at this point in conversation with medical people, be they of animal or people variety, that I interrupt with the point that I am a nurse so they don't need to explain a lot of terms. Saves time. Anyway... he was bleeding internally. He will be there at the hospital for the next 24-48 hours, perhaps longer, depending on how he does.

I keep looking for him in the house, expecting to see him on the bed or the couch. I want to go to the vet hospital and physically touch him. I know he's in good hands, but they're not my hands dammit.

I will keep you posted on how he recovers.