Potential New Career?

Indi was recently unwell. Of course this co-incided with a long weekend and a few days prior to us leaving for out West Coast Wandering trip. After 48 hours of not eating, we booked into the emergency vet for an appointment on Sunday morning.

By the time we made the appointment on Saturday night, my subconscious was projecting a worse case scenario of a bowel obstruction requiring surgery however symptomatically Indi was stable - her only clinical signs that she was sick was the food refusal and a few vomits.

On arrival at the Emergency vet, I was greeted by the vet exclaiming 'oh you're the sonographer!' I recognised the vet too having scan his wife only a few days earlier where we'd had an interesting conversation about MRI in veterinary work!

Anyway he assessed Indi and although he was unable to feel any bowel obstruction, he noted that her gut was making very loud gurgling noises - even Katy and I could hear it! These noises were considered not normal and warranted further investigation. He suggested an ultrasound, xray and blood test. He carried Indi and invited us to follow him into the next room where the ultrasound machine was located. He promptly turned to me commenting that he wasn't that great at ultrasounds and that I would probably be better!! So together we looked at Indi's insides assessing for any evidence of bowel pathology including a potential foreign body! Nothing obvious seen - although she did have a few largish reactive lymph nodes.

Next plan was to leave Indi with him for a few hours so he could do a blood test and x-ray hoping to figure out what was going on. His day though turned out to be rather busy with several emergency cases presenting. Eventually we returned to the vet late in the afternoon to pick up a very dopey Indi (she had to be sedated for her second xray.)

Final diagnosis was gastroenteritis - inflammation of the bowel due to infection. Blood test results did not completely rule out Addisons disease. Further investigations may be necessary if repeated gastro episodes occur.

We were all very happy to take a sleepy Indi home with some medication. Much to our relief, we can report that she is now back to her normal self - eating and bouncing around.