Our Minsters of Magic isn't feeling very magical right now...

When it rains it pours, huh? This has been a rough week for us Youngs... First with me in the ER and my upcoming surgery, then our plumbing leaks everywhere, and now Mini. Last night I noticed that she was holding her mouth open kinda funny and her tongue was just lolling out. She was just sitting there like that, drooling! Not just a little doggy slobber, but drooooooooooooooling, long strands of it just running down her face and onto the floor. Upon closer inspection I realized she was foaming at the mouth and couldn't seem to be able to control her tongue much. I freaked... Ben was on his way home and so I googled "dog foaming at the mouth" and found a bunch of scary stuff, other than rabies (which we know isn't a possibility b/c she is up to date on her shots). So at 10PM we whisk her away to Neel Veterinary Hospital to see what was up. A lot of the websites suggested frog/toad poisoning, which we were sure was the case because she loves to chase/pounce on them in our yard. Three hours later (yeah, it was a long night in the doggy ER) the doctors were stumped. Not poisoning, X-Rays looked fine, they sedated her to scope her mouth and throat and there was no foreign body stuck anywhere, etc. As far as they could tell it was neurological because after doing a bunch of "pinch tests" they determined that she has very little to no sensation in her face/muzzle/mouth. They put her on Prednisone(for inflammation) and Tramadol (in case she was in pain) and we made a recheck appt for 2 weeks out. We brought her home, gave her some meds, and went to bed.

This morning she woke up a whole lot worse. She tried unsuccessfully (for about 15-20 minutes) to eat breakfast but all she managed to do was drool/slobber/foam all over her bowl... I doubt she got more than 5 kibbles down her throat. I tried getting her to drink but she couldn't do anything other than get water all on her face but none stayed in her mouth and just ran out the sides... Ben was at work and I just started panicking... I called our regular Vet, Dr.Mauldin, and they had us bring her right over. He did more pinch tests and she didn't react all the way down to her neck. He said that in his 18 years of practice he's only seen this twice and we're looking at 3 possibilities: 1) she got stung by a bee in the mouth and that's causing the paralysis (only neither Vet was able to find a stinger or any site of a sting... no swelling, redness, etc) 2) A degenerative auto-immune disease (meaning it would get worse) or 3) a tumor pressing on her Trigeminal nerve which would require brain surgery.

We are hoping and praying this is just a sting, as the latter two will lead to needing to make a difficult decision... our Vet is usually very chipper and optimistic, but he told us we should start thinking about how far we want/are monetarily able to continue with this if its not just a simple bee sting. So we set up a followup for Tuesday, they gave us some syringes to feed her with, and we headed off to PetSmart to buy her some canned food. We have to make her a "slurry" of food and water so we can feed it to her through the syringes, since she is unable to feed herself. It's so heartbreaking to watch, since other than her face she is healthy and happy and still her usual bumbling self... But when you see her unable to eat and drink, reality sets in and we just sat there and had ourselves a good long cry with her. These next few days will be crucial and telling of whats to come...

I know this may sound weird (especially to those of you that don't have dogs or aren't "pet people") but we don't have kids and our pups are our babies. It was a rough start with Mini, she was one screwed up dog when we first got her, but here we are 4 years later and she is just the sweetest thing ever. She is so gentle and cuddly and obedient. She's gotten to be really good around the kiddos and just loves life... Any prayers on her behalf would be welcome... we're just not ready to let her go just yet... :`(