Monty had his vet appointment last night. I think ideally we were both hoping that we would go in, they’d be able to diagnose his severe stomach flu-like symptoms, and we’d come home and he’d be better. Unfortunately, thats not quite how last night played out. Two hours, a battery of several blood tests, x-rays, and a urine analysis, and I’m not sure we’ll ever know what has caused his sudden sickness. But that’s only 1/2 of the story…

They first took him back for a set of x-rays to see if he had an obstruction in his digestive tract. It was good to see everything looking ok from the outside, and other than a large gas pocket in his stomach (which is par-for-the-course for this stink bomb anyway) that came back normal.

Next up they drew blood to run some tests. 10 minutes later the doctor came in and scared the living shit out of us; according to the results, Monty should be comatose with acute diabetes & liver failure. I give her credit for realizing something wasn’t right, so they ran a second blood test as well as a urine analysis to rule out diabetes. The 2nd blood test came back in within the norm except for one value: Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT). ALT is an enzyme considered liver-specific in dogs and cats. It is used as a screening test for liver disease but will not diagnose the disease itself. You may also see an increase in ALT when there is damage to liver cells, skeletal muscles, the pancreas and the muscles of the heart.
Insert shock here. Could Monty really have liver disease, or did he just get into something that his liver is working overtime to get out of his system? Luckily the liver is one of the most resilient organs in the body…
At this point we were given a choice: take him to an emergency vet for overnight observation, or have him prepped to be observed at home. We chose to give up our Friday night, so they gave him a shot of B vitamins, a camel hump of fluids on his shoulder to be absorbed to combat dehydration, and a shot of some anti-nausea medication. We also received some antibiotics & more anti-nausea as a prescription to take home.

As soon as we got home he wanted to eat. We gave him several small meals of some wet food all of which he wolfed down. We stayed up with him until almost 1am and he appeared MUCH better than he had the previous evening, so we were very positive going to bed. I woke up around 5am to Monty puking on the carpet, which in all reality is better than the 4 or 5 times i woke up Wednesday and Thursday night to puking.

So I guess right now we’re taking baby steps. He started on his antibiotics last night, and has continued to eat and drink this morning. He seems much perkier and more himself today running around like a crazy dog, so we’ll update his condition later tonight.