[Dailydrool] Frank's Long and Scary Night

[Kay, Nancy K *HS]

We went out to dinner with friends last night, and returned home around 11:00.  We were happily greeted by Frank and Sarah, loudly ahrooing their welcome.  We let them outside for the last pee of the night, and in about 10 minutes they came back in.  Our bedtime routine is to take off their collars, give them each a liver treat, and say goodnight to everybody, lights out.  Well, Frank wouldn't take his liver treat!  A huge RED FLAG went up for both Bill and me!  In his 4-year-old life, he has never turned down food of any kind, especially a liver treat.

We watched him and he acted like he was scared to death!  Frank velcro'd himself to Bill, and Frank would start to lie down, he would immediately stand up again, and he paced and panted, and drooled, flapped his head some, and was borderline frantic about something.  We felt him all over for sore places, got no pain response.  We looked in his ears, in his eyes, felt his nose, felt his belly (no signs of bloat), looked for bugs, watched for a seizure, everything we could think of.  After about 20 minutes of this semi-hysteria, we called the emergency vet (close to midnight on a Saturday night by now).  I described Frank's behavior to the vet, and she offered a bunch of possibilities (a moth in his ear?  Got spooked by some animal in the back yard?  A possum? A wildcat?  Got bitten by a spider?  Got scared by a snake?)  She said that if he'd been bitten by something poisonous, there would be more severe symptoms within 15-20 minutes of the bite.  Since he wasn't swelling up and since he could walk ok and breathe ok, she recommended that we just watch him, and call them back if anything changed.

Well, this went on for hours, though Frank seemed to get somewhat calmer as time wore on.  We were afraid to go to sleep because we didn't want to miss anything.  Finally, at 3:00 am, I gave him a couple of Benadryl, and we gave up and went to bed since Frank didn't seem to be getting any worse.  Frank still walked around some, and around 4:30, he got up on the bed and lay down next to me in his usual spot.  He didn't sleep soundly, instead he kept raising his head, as though he heard a noise outside or something.  Bill got up and fed them both around 6:30, and Frank has been fine today, but very tired.

So, we have no idea what could have happened in those 10 minutes Frank was outside by himself.  You can be sure they're both going out on leashes tonight!

Oh, yeah, while all that was going on with Frank, Sarah was peeing lakes in the house, which she never, ever does.  She's been desperately thirsty in the last few days, and drinks bowls-full of water several times a day.  So it's off to the vet for Sarah next week, to see what might be causing her terrible thirst.  From what I've read, the top candidates are kidney problems, liver problems, and diabetes.  She'll be 12 years old next month, bless her heart.

It'll be an early night tonight, Bill is taking a nap as I write this!

Nancy, owned by Sweet Peeing Sarah, and Frank the Terrified Tank