And then there was Sunday

A section in this post is tough to write, but I'll do the best I can. I started the morning with some softball practice and out of the 13 or 14 of us on the team, a grand total of 4 showed up. We basically took batting and fielding practice for an hour and called it a day. It was 95 degrees out and so we cut it off. We'll try to make our record 3-3 when we play a team next week that hasn't won a game yet.

I headed over to Willow Creek. I saw Evan and Mary from my Mississippi team and we caught up on what we'd been up to the last few weeks. In church, Mike Breaux talked about the need to wait and be patient. Solid message.

Then I got home. I found my dog Hogan laying on the tile floor panting. He had dumped on the floor. Now that's happened a few times in the past, so initially I didn't think much of it. But then I put his leash on him to take him outside. I noticed he wasn't coming. I looked and his back legs weren't working. He was dragging them and using his front legs to push himself forward. He laid on the deck, and went to the bathroom right there. I carried him inside. He was panting heavily, shaking, and could not get up. And his right eyeball looked like his at droooped down and to the right. Theat eyeball was moving back and forth as if he was trying to see everything that was going on around him. I just laid on the floor with him most of the afternoon.

So Mom got home and after a few hours of debating, we finally took him to the emergency room. The doctor basically said it was probably vestibulitis, which is similar to a stroke. His balance center in his brain was thrown off, which could have been because of inflammation somewhere in his ear. So when he tried to stand up, his back legs were widely spread out and he had trouble shifting his 55 pound body. She was also worried for his kidneys because he was panting so much and losing fluid. So we were relieved when he started drinking water.

The doctor said the same three things we always hear whenever we took Hogan to a vet, to a camp, or to the groomers. He's the biggest cocker, he's the nicest to people, and he's in great health. I guess we did a few things right raising him. If only he was nice to other dogs...

Right now, we have him on antibiotics and Benadryl to calm his nervousness. I really don't know if he'll get better. I've heard some dogs recover from these things inside of 2 or 3 weeks. Sometimes, it doesn't work out. Monday was a much better day for him than Sunday as he wasn't panting quite as much and he ate more. We'll know more as the next few days progress.

I don't know how much time he has. I really don't want him to be in pain. Right now he's 5 days from his 14 1/2 year birthday. Let's hope he makes it.