Max is BACK!

Chris has been bugging me to post about Max's near death health scare so I figure now is the time.

**Warning: Long Dog Post Ahead**

For those of you that haven't heard we had a very ROUGH week and a half with Max. 

It started on Friday 9/24. I bought him a new rope toy on Friday night. Well last Friday night he started making this noise like he was choking on something and trying to gag it up. I was certain that he  was choking on a thread from the rope. Little did I know this is what a doggy cough sounds like. I called first thing Saturday morning and got an appointment. We took him to the vet and they told us he had a form of Kennel Cough. Poor Max. If you didn't know this already apparently it was an going around the city. It already like the 10th sick dog he had that day. I was freaking out a little but they said that with antibiotics he should be 100% by Monday. 

Well no such luck. On Monday night when I got home from work he was 10x worse than he was on Saturday. I took him back to the vet that night and Dr. Anderson (my favorite vet) told me that he had pneumonia. I was by myself and she kept telling me how it could get worse but it shouldn't and that she would need to observe him on Tuesday. Needless to say- I burst into tears and wailed "Is he going to be Ok?!?!" The vet assured me that everything should be fine but it was just a precautionary measure to watch him for the day. 

She gave him a shot of intravenous antibiotics and this is what I came home with...

He didn't move from that spot all night. 

It was a little weird for us because as we all know this is what we are used to...

(hahaha, this picture still makes me laugh so hard!)

I had breakfast with my mom, nana, and Rachel early Tuesday morning and asked Mom and Nana to come home with me just in case I couldn't Max into the car. He was able to make it OK himself so we headed for the vet. He spent the day hanging out in the nurses station. (Let me just say that Max is a ladies man and no lady can resist him charm. He got super special treatment all day I was told). They also gave him a catheter so they wouldn't have to keep pricking him with the shots they were giving him. He was a little better by the time I picked him up that night. 

 On Wednesday he was 100x worse. He could not even pick himself up out of his kennel. He was in so much pain that he had tears running down his face. I immediately started crying. Mom came over to help me load him, kennel and all, into her car. I drove him to Petsmart and then cried all the way inside while I tried to explain to someone that I needed help to get him out of the car. He was OK after all that day. His shot for the fever had worn off by that morning so it had gone up again. They told us that the fever and the pain made hims just too weak to move. Break my heart. 

On Thursday morning we woke up to this...

 His paw was so swollen it looked deformed. I FREAKED out! I called my mom and she came to help me load him up again. Apparently the bandage wrapped around his catheter was too tight. In the meantime the vet noticed that he kept dropping his hocks. She finally figured out that he was suffering from Hypertrophic Osteodystrophy. It's when the growth plates of young, rapidly growing, large breed dogs become enflamed. IT WAS TERRIBLE. By Thursday night he couldn't walk at all. 

Can you tell how swollen his joints are?

It was just his front legs. We were carrying him around like a reverse wheelbarrow for THREE DAYS. My back was so sore from trying to carry him around.

I was also his personal chef. It must have been good because he is licking his lips. 

He is back to himself now. Thankfully. 

Can you tell?

We took him for his check up and he was being SUCH A HAM for the vet. You could obviously tell that she gave him everything he wanted every day that he was there and he was trying to get more of whatever that may have been. Would you really want it any other way though? We told her that we were having some problems making him listen and behave and she admitted to spoiling him a little too much during his stay. It was worth it. 

I guess Max thought he was in a hotel not a vet's office.