Snow saves Maxy

I am not sure if snow was the cause or what saved Maxy but let me start from the beginning. Oh and sorry about the quality of todays photo. I am not into photos today, so I quickly took one of Matthew with Jade while both were watching TV together. Oh digressing.

So from the beginning... As you know yesterday it snowed on and off throughout the day and usually at night I sleep with the front door slightly agar so the dogs can come in and out at night to do their business outside and sleep inside. But because of the snow and rather cold conditions I decided to close the door last night and placed newspaper on the floor for them to, you know their toilet.

Anyway just after two in the morning something woke me and I went downstairs to check on the dogs and found them asleep in their bed but I also found on the newspaper a rather big puddle of watery diarrhea mixed with blood. I panicked, as my first thought was something had gone wrong with either Jade or Skye, who both were neutered 11 days ago. But checking all four of my dogs came up empty handed. In fact I didn’t know which dog was sick. I kept watch over them till morning and paid attention to which dog did not feel like eating. Maxy refuse to eat, so I fetch a tasty treat from the kitchen which I knew he won't refuse, but he turn his nose away from the treat.

So I rushed Maxy to my vet up the road, and waited until they opened. As the vet arrived Maxy started vomiting clear mucus on cue so the vet could see what was wrong. Leaving Maxy in their caring hands I headed for work, exhausted. An hour later I got the phone call from the vet with the diagnosis, it was Hemorrhagic GastroEnteritis or HGE and we were lucky that we caught it in time as this is a deadly disease with a high mortality rate if not treated with aggressive supportive care. The vet said that it is happens so quickly to healthy dogs no matter what breed and the veterinary world is stumped to what causes it but my vet said that there are many theories but none proven. She said that the most likely cause in her opinion was the sudden cold weather.

So was it yesterday's cold weather which caused the HGE? If it wasn't for the cold, my front door would have been open, and I would not have seen the bloody diarrhea until I got home this evening and it may have been too late for Maxy. So that is why I say that the snow saved Maxy. He is still critical at the vet, on antibiotics and a drip keeping him hydrated.