Sick Doggie

Bella had her first visit to see Dr Torry today (our vet). It all seemed to be going well, until the blood test was taken... Bella has heartworm. Torry was honest about everything with Laurie, explaining the stages she could be in, the treatments, the cost (VERY expensive) and the possible results.

Laurie sent me a text message to tell me and my heart just sank. After I called her I called the rescue shelter that we adopted Bella from. She immediately assured me that they would cover everything, but that they would have to do all of the treatments. The cost to have a vet do it would be too much for them to reimburse, so they (with a vet at their rescue) would do the testing to see what stage she is at, give her the first medicine (an injection) that is very strong and will kill the worms in her heart. They will be keeping her for a couple of days to observe her... she has to be kept calm (as calm as a beagle can be!!) The worms will begin to pass through her arteries and that's when problems can arise... if the worms are too big they can cause blood clots and she could die. If she can make it past all that... 30-days after the injection she is given an oral medication. Then, all we can do is wait and hope. She'd be checked again in a few months.

The rescue shelter didn't do a heartworm test because the shelter in Georgia said they had completed one it was negative. However, it's obvious that she probably had it/got it in GA... so... did they really complete a test or not? Makes you wonder...

I asked the owner of the rescue shelter if they would be reimbursed by the shelter in GA and she said no, it's not even worth attempting. That's so sad.... considering they went down to GA to rescue her or she would have been put down. And this is the result. She also said that had the shelter in GA known she had heartworm they would have put her down.

Everything was explained to the kids this afternoon. Andrew was very emotional about it... Savannah was being very positive.

I told Laurie that I finally came to the acceptance of it all while eating my lunch in the parking lot at Lowes in the rain (no, I don't make it practice to eat my lunch there, but... it was a convenient location today [img]http://mazeguy.net/basic/biggrin.gif[/img] )... if we were meant to see Bella through this and give her last days happy ones... OK. I'm still hoping for the best, but have accepted otherwise.

We've only had Bella just over a month... but she has really become a big part of our lives. It would be difficult to lose her so quickly and in such a terrible way. But... we'll just hope for the best and pray.