Good intentions-WARNING- dog poop inside

I was so going to catch up tonight and post all these things I have backed up, but my day did not go as planned.

When I got up this morning, Simba could not. She could not get herself up on her feet. She scrambled and scrambled and just could not make her front legs work right or her back legs at all. I tried to help, but we did not get much done. Picking up her back end caused her to pee on me, and I was sure there was going to be projectile poop if I did not stop it. Her front paws were cramped up into claws, almost, it was really weird. She just could not get any traction on the wood floors.

After an hour of that, me panicking all the while, I told her to stay put in the hall where she had made it to, because I had to go to work. I intended to come back in a couple of hours, and see what she had done with herself. I worried throughout the morning, but I was sure she would be up when I got home.

Nope. Not even close. She had not moved an inch. I called Barry, then I called Kevin, my vet and asked him to come. I was sure she needed to be put down. I called my mom to be here for it. I called Tracy and cried so hard, I made her cry. It was awful. I get so emotional about my animals.

Nothing happened for about 45 minutes. I decided to let Slater come in and say his good byes--he went to check her out, and I turned to pour his breakfast. He is not in good shape either (losing weight for no apparent reason) and I did not want to miss a chance to feed him extra. While I was doing that, she GOT UP! Next thing I knew, she was in the bathroom getting a drink, and then she wanted out. It was the craziest thing.

I let her out and went with her, leaving the door open. She pottied, and got up like normal, then looked for a place to poop. She did, but then she fell in it. That was a low point of my life for sure. I got her up, and cleaned her up, and mom showed up. I called Kevin's cell to tell him she was up, but he decided to come see her anyway to see what her deal was, and help get her in a car to get her to the office to run bloodwork. He had packed to put her down, not diagnose her.

Well that was a show for sure. Simba does not like Strange men in her house. She really does not like it, so she started growling at him. And fell again. She could not get up, but she sure was lurching her way around the kitchen trying to get away from him--she hid under the island, and growled and growled and was generally foul. That sure complicated getting her out of here.

But we figured it out. We put her on a blanket, and picked her up. Kevin held up her butt and I carried the front of the blanket with her wrapped up tight so she could not turn on him. Ol girl weighs 150 pounds. We got her in the back of my car, and the silly girl climbed over the seat to get in the backseat. She made no sense at all. Also, during this whole time, other than growling at Kevin, she never cried or acted like anything hurt. She just did not work right

So we got her to the clinic, gave her a sedative, and ran some tests. She had one roundworm, so not wormy. She is almost 11 years old which is super old for a Great Dane, and other than her hips hurting so she takes an NSAID, she has always been healthy. She has some fatty tumors, but nothing significant. Her blood tests all came back normal, other than having a very low thyroid (aww, just like her mama!), and her heart and lungs were good. The final verdict, we think, is that she had a seizure, and/or possibly a stroke. He is leaning toward seizures though, possibly due to hypothyroidism, or perhaps a brain tumor. He explained that having a thyroid issue can cause everything to go wonky, even neurological stuff like the seizure would be. If she has more of them, we can put her on phenobarbital, but for a random one she does not need it. He sent her home with wormer, thyroid meds and VALIUM to calm her should she have another seizure. Squirt it up her nose Valium--doesnt that sound like a great invention?

When we got her home, mom and I had to drag her out of the car, but she got up okay, and made it up the steps, and went outside, etc, then went down in the kitchen floor where she wanted to stay. My attempts to help her up did not work, so I told her to work it out for herself and left her there like Kevin said to do

This took all day, so I did not get to go back to work. I would not have been worth a damn anyway, I was so wrung out. Still am--it is amazing how much impact adrenaline can have on you. (speaking of which, I have lost 15 pounds now, in 20 days--not bad huh?)

I tried to take a nap, and after her refusing to get up for a while, she showed up at the bedroom door all by herself. She slept hard for about 3 hours, then when Slater got up to go to the bathroom and eat again, she did too! All by herself! She just hung out with me lying in the floor behind me while I was typing this, until just a couple of minutes ago when she got up all by herself and went to bed. No scrambling either, just slowly got up.

We may beat this yet. It is not over--and I sure hope she is not over either--but I am far more encouraged than I was this morning.

Pray for her. I am not ready to lose her, I do not care how old she is. It is not time.