Pet Conspiracy

I think there is a pet conspiracy in our household right now. Last night, Lindy (our 8 (ok - almost 9) year old black lab) became suddenly violently ill. Tray was on the front porch playing guitar and I was working on my computer. The dogs were already inside in their kennels, but the doors weren't shut. I heard Lindy come out of her kennel and then what I thought was an odd noise like she was knocking into something. It happened two or three times and I got up to go see what it was and she was standing there retching. She'd thrown up at least 5 times on our rug in front of the front door. I called Tray and we got her outside and got the rug outside to wash it out and I cleaned up the carpet where some missed the rug. After that, it occurred to me to go check on her to see if she was still throwing up. I called her several times and got no response so I started walking around into the back yard. And that's when I found her. She was just laying in the side yard in a really odd place like she would never lay and she couldn't move. She tapped-tapped her tail a few times when I first found her, but then even that stopped. She couldn't even lift her head up off the ground to look at me. Her breathing was very labored and her belly seemed distended. I thought she was going to die right there. I called Tray and he came and tried to get her up - to no avail. He went and got his truck and picked her up and off they went to the emergency vet.

These were almost the exact circumstances under which Minx passed away several years ago. So, they did an x-ray almost as soon as they got there and found no obvious intestinal blockages or any abdominal mass as they had with Minx. That was a relief. Then they did blood work and a toxicity screen to see if she'd been poisoned somehow. She had not and in fact her blood work was normal. The vet said she was actually quite healthy to be an (almost) 9 year old dog. She was very dehydrated, but otherwise he couldn't find anything and his best guess is that she ate something very, very bad for her. On the positive side, she improved on her own and is now doing fine other than being very thirsty. We are withholding food today and letting her rest to give her a chance to recover. It was a scary evening. I really thought I'd lost her - and with everything that has been going on with Catfish it was very overwhelming.