Lughnasa and the crescent Lughnasa Moon
Monday gratefuls: Rigel. Kep. Kate. Tom. Mark. Paul. Bill. VRCC. Thermometers. AC in Ruby. Defurmination. Vets. Vet techs. Blood tests. Kindness at VRCC.
Got up yesterday at 8 a.m. Very late for me. Breakfast, then zoom with the ancient friends. No time to write. After the zoom call ended, I took off for Petsmart, where Kep got groomed. I drove back home after dropping him off even though it’s an hour round trip. Nowhere I could imagine hanging out for the three hours.
Nap. Then. Rigel’s not looking right. She wasn’t. She looked like she was sick. We worried about bloat. I felt her stomach. Not tense. Her expression made me sad. I felt her head. Hot. Got out the thermometer and, in the undignified way we do it, took her temperature. 105. A Dog’s normal temp is around 102.5.
Kate called the emergency vet where we’ve taken Rigel before, VRCC. They’re sort of a cross between emergency vet and the U.’s vet hospital. Yes, that temperature meant she needed to be seen.
Rigel loves to go for rides, but this time I had to place her front paws on the floor of Ruby’s back, then put my hands under her rear and boost her in. At one hundred pounds she’s still in my range to help. One reason we know longer have Irish Wolfhounds. When they’re sick, I can no longer move them. IW’s weight between one hundred and fifty and two hundred pounds.
Left home around four fifteen, got into Englewood at five p.m. Due to Covid the VRCC building allows no entry for anyone except employees and patients. Understand. But. It’s a bare parking lot and four p.m. meant the day’s heat had hit maximum. Ninety five.
Rigel disappeared inside the nice air conditioned building. I went back out to Ruby to wait. Four hours would pass before I left for home. Life threatening illness and trauma kept showing up ahead of Rigel being seen. Triage.
On the internet I looked up running a car with the air conditioning on while parked. Modern cars, the experts said, could be run with the a.c. on until you ran out of gas or the battery drained. Didn’t do that right away, but sitting in Ruby with the windows down, the sun above and the asphalt below…
I drove to Steak and Shake for a burger. Got back. Had that sort of supper. Realized I could download a book from the Jefferson County Library and listen while I waited. Forgot my books while getting Rigel in the car. Found a book by David Baldacci and the wait became less onerous.
Finally, around eight forty-five p.m. a doctor called on my cell. Rigel’s temperature was at 104.3 and hadn’t changed since she arrived. Not gotten worse, but not better either. She recommended an overnight hospital stay where they would try to get her fever down, give her IV fluids, and start hunting for a cause. The bloodwork and physical exam showed nothing except normal values. Urine, too. Chest x-ray. Nada.
Still true this morning. The tab is going to be high. In the thousands. She is, however, our last big dog and she’s been so healthy, we’re going to try and figure it out. At eleven and a half it could be cancer. If so, we won’t treat that. Just about anything else we’ll probably try to correct. Depending on the estimate.
These are heart-wrenching decisions where weighing the pocketbook against Rigel’s life makes our heart spin.
That was yesterday and yesterday’s gone.
