Maggie is sick...

I left out some details from the end of our vacation until we had a chance to go to the vet and get some facts instead of just worrying about what may be wrong with Maggie. Here is some background and what we know now:

Late Sunday night, just before bed, Maggie coughed a few times. I've never heard her cough before, but we were sitting outside for a while and we figured she probably just got a little something like hair or grass stuck in her throat. There was also someone smoking nearby, so I thought maybe that bothered her.

Just after we got on the boat Monday afternoon she coughed a few times and sounded like she might vomit. We still weren't sure it was anything. I'd just lifted her up, so we thought I might have applied pressure to her throat. Plus when she sounded like she might vomit we were at sea so we thought maybe the motion was bothering her.

By Tuesday she'd coughed a few more times, never very long, but it had happened enough that we thought we'd better schedule an appointment for the vet. The canine flu has been going around, and if untreated and severe can be fatal, so we din't want to take any chances. The soonest they could get us in was this afternoon.

Around the time we made that appointment on Tuesday, Kat wrote Carla to let them know we'd better put off any playdates with George until we figured out what was wrong with her. That ended up unfolding a series of other events.

It turns out poor George started coughing on Saturday, and by Sunday they were at the emergency vet. Because of the flu problems, their vet did an x-ray. That x-ray showed possible fluid in the lungs and an enlarged heart. They started George on antibiotics and went back on Tuesday to get new x-rays which showed some improvement in the lungs, but again the enlarged heart. Taken by itself, they weren't sure if it was all related, or if the heart was a separate issue from the lungs/cough.

We heard all of this from Carla on Wednesday. We were worried about the cough and now possible heart problems was on our list of worries. The good news was that since they both were coughing it seemed likely that the cough was just something going around and not related to the heart. We're really glad that they let us know all of this so we were armed with this information for our appointment today. Since they came from the same environment, and possibly are genetically related, the heart was a concern for us - but I think really we thought we were just being paranoid and overly cautious.

In our appointment, they ran a test for heartworms, which we'll hear back about tomorrow. They weren't going to do an x-ray, but we relayed what we knew about George and they said they'd take 1 x-ray picture just to doublecheck and to put our minds at ease.

It turns out that they saw 'spots' or 'spiderwebs' in the x-rays of her lungs. I don't know if this is similar to the fluid described from George's x-rays. And, unfortunately, they also see abnormal enlargement in Maggie's heart too. They ended up doing another x-ray after seeing the enlargement in the first one to get a different angle on it, and got 2 other vets opinions on it to confirm it was enlarged. If there's any good news in this, it's that in both George and Maggie's cases, the vets didn't hear a heart murmur which would likely indicate the problem was in an advanced stage.

Maggie now is on two antibiotics - same as George. They're advising us to come back in 2 weeks to see if the cough is gone and get another x-ray to check her lungs. They don't think the cough is related to the heart problem and is likely a bacterial infection. The vet did point out that the enlargement was there, and noticeable, but was not major (as far as enlarged hearts go, I suppose). They advised us that after we clear up the lungs we can decide what to do about the heart. A next step would likely entail doing an EKG and ultrasound with a cardiologist to get an opinion on whether it requires treatment or is mild enough that it won't cause her long-term problems (Maggie is going to have to get a job now to pay for her medical bills).

We assume the cough for George and Maggie will likely clear up soon and it may have been a blessing in disguise to uncover the potential heart problems. Right now we're very happy that Carla and Justin found us, otherwise we wouldn't know about this at all, and it's going to be helpful to exchange notes on this as we all go forward.

We always knew Maggie had a big heart, but this wasn't exactly what we had in mind. Of course, we're hopeful and optimistic that it will all turn out OK for both Maggie and George. For now all we can do is wait and see.