Ginnie Mae and the Angel

I worked an overnight shift at the Animal Emergency Clinic Saturday night 8/22/09.  There is an interesting case I would like to share with you.   I have an eclectic memory for cases.  While a case may be imbedded in my mind; unfortunately, I actually forget people's names at the speed of vanishing neurons.  Which is a good thing, on occasion; it protects the guilty and insulates the innocent from the embarrassment of having their name inadvertently mentioned.   A tattletale tongue is never good.

This case is an incredible love story.   Ginnie Mae is a Toy Poodle she is approximately 12 years of age.  She has "bling" and a wardrobe most females will use the phrase "to die for".  These clothes thingies are something that baffles me.  Clothes should not kill or cause such an ulcerated stomach.  Once the social points are covered, it all looks the same to me.  However, I am male and classified as clothes inept.  Her owner did mention she had a Harley outfit.  She does ride in her own "Leathers" strapped in close to her owner's bosom.  GM has a sequined Doggles for her viewing pleasure and eye protection.  She is a doggie diva, with a regal bearing.   Biker Babes are of tough fiber.  Your overall safety depends on who is riding with you.  They reside in a nearby neighboring township on forty acres of property.  GM enjoys a walkabout on a regular basis.

Her owner rescued GM a few years ago.   From the owner's description, it was a pyometra (uterus infection).   Her owner and veterinarian cared for her very competently.   She also needed surgical correction of both eyes.  She went up to MSU VCC and was attended by Dr Wendy Townsley, a board certified veterinary ophthalmologist.    Dr Townsley replaced the lenses in both eyes.  This procedure works well when preformed by those trained in the procedure.   Dr Townsley was introduced to you when she examined my dog Tinkerbelle's left eye.  She is a very warm caring soul.  Combining GM's wardrobe and new internal lenses really complete the statement of styling and looking good. 

Recently this blissful serene existence ran into further turbulence.  GM is getting old enough that cognitive dysfunction syndrome (CDS) is starting to appear.  You may be familiar with a parallel condition people get.   Dementia or Alzheimer's disease happens when you loose focus and cannot remember where or why you are going in this direction.  Grandmother will wake up in the night or even during the day and decide it is time for a walkabout.  They go out, even, in familiar territory and loose the tether to reality.   Sense of direction is a skill they formerly had.  It becomes impossible to remember what your house looks like and the path home is hidden a fog with no directional signposts visible or clues available to work your way back.  You become a prisoner by default in your own domain.  It is not that you cannot reason, your memory plugs up the process with jumbled fragmented data.   It is like solving an algebra problem with English rules for diagramming a sentence.  It makes sense to you but you get to a gibberish result that will not process.  This gets more confusing by the minute.   You overexert, heat up, become dehydrated, get hungry and hypoglycemic and yet still more confused.  This complex spirals your reserves down more with each additional stress that confronts you.
Ginnie Mae had the above set of things happen to her.  Her walkabout became the ultimate nightmare for her owner.  She was gone for what seemed like forever.  Can you imagine a ten-day trip where there is no food or drinking water?

Her owner drove all over and put up the posters of a grey black poodle with a pink collar.   She saturated the Bellville area with posters asked every body she saw if they had seen her.  No lead went unfollowed, they were all looked after.  She hired two professional tracking dogs.  They did extensive nosing around but did not find her.  GM's owner then got someone looking with a thermal camera, lots of heat, smoke and mirrors but no Ginnie Mae.

She had another friend with a 10-month-old male Bluetick Coonhound.  He is a champion show dog according to his owners; they classified him as a Grand Champion.  He sniffed and snorted around then he went across the road where GM never goes.  He went to a culvert and would not stop nosing around until it was dug it out.  You guessed it, inside the culvert was this mud burrito named Ginnie Mae.  The Bluetick picked up two more adjectives, Hero and Angel.

They called and brought GM to the Animal Emergency Clinic.  Three people bathed her for twenty minuets before I could start a thorough examination.  I have never seen so much mud on a dog.  She looked like Rambo up against the creek wall covered in mud.  It was everywhere, one inch thick.  How she breathed and did not suffocate is a mystery to me. 

We started her on IV fluids to replace her lost body fluid.  We drew blood samples to rule out organ system issues.  Her renal function showed a very elevated BUN of 130 mg/dl (16-36), Creatinine was above normal range at 2.9 mg/dl (0.8-2.8) and phosphorus was slightly above normal.  Her potassium was low at the 3.0 mmol/L (3.5-5.8).   These numbers are consistent with severe dehydration, exposure and catabolic effect of forced starvation.    Her rectum was loaded with fly maggots.   There was a spot on her rear leg that had an ulcer and maggots attached.  We gave her oxygen in an incubator, warmed her up to 100.0 degrees F.   Dogs need to be at near normal temperature for the digestive system to function properly particularly in starvation cases.   Using a vital stain on her corneas showed no ulcerations resulting from her ordeal.

Ginnie Mae was warmed up and eating within two hours.  Ten hours of fluids brought her BUN to 55 mg/dl, up but a whole lot better.  She still had an awful smelling black bloody stool and was urinating normal urine and volume.   She was up ambulating in the incubator during the night.  GM spent Sunday on fluids at the AEC.  She is home and doing great.

We are protected by whom we ride with.  In this case, it includes who looks for you; the Bluetick's name is Gideon: A hero and servant warrior of God.

For more information about a specific case, consult your veterinarian.                   
The outside of a pet is good for the inside of a human.