I don't want to bore you with a million details because, believe me, I could. But, I do want to update you on how things happened and how they are going right now.
About 3 weeks ago, Stella got sick. It only took a few more days for her to go from sick, to deathly ill. She vomited a couple of times (once a day at night) for 2 nights in a row. I knew something was wrong so I made an appointment for her to visit the Vet. We left the Vet thinking she had a bacterial infection in her intestine, so she was put on meds. This was when she was sick. It took a day from going to the Vet for her to get deathly ill. She stopped eating. All during this time, she was so weak she could barely walk and literally laid in the same spot 24/7. Of course I had her bundle up the entire time. :-)
These are all from when she was very sick. See her all bundled up and then she slept 24/7
Of course, she stopped eating on a Saturday morning. I called the Vet first thing Monday morning and took her in that morning at 11:30. She was immediately "hospitalized" due to the fact that she was SO dehydrated and weak. They wanted to run blood work and get fluids in her ASAP. Since the Vet does not have people there 24/7 I was able to bring her home that night and I took her back to the Vet Tuesday morning.
At this point, I didn't know what was wrong. I thought that once she had fluids in her that she would be OK. Little did I know, this was not the case.
I went to get braces on (terrible, I know) Tuesday morning after I took Stella back to the Hospital. It wasn't until I finished getting them on, walking out the door when I realized something was terribly wrong. Stella's Vet called and left me a message to call her back. When I did, I was informed Stella's health was declining very fast and that her Sodium levels were continuously dropping and that the Vet (Dr. McNinch) thought she had Addison's Disease. I was told that if I did not take her to a specialist that she might not make it. I drove my hour back to Greenwood from the Upstate to pick up my baby and take her BACK to the Upstate to the Specialist.
I freaked out this whole morning, I couldn't even remember the name of what Dr. McNinch said she probably had, and I'm thankful for my mother who helped get everything straightened out for me. All I knew at that moment was I needed to take Stella as soon as possible to get help. I literally thought she was doing to die on the way to Greenville. She was as pitiful as I've ever seen anyone.
Okay, I said I wouldn't bore you with details, but I am. Needless to say, she was immediately hospitalized at Upstate Veterinary Specialists (and this was a REAL animal hospital- staff there 24/7). She was officially diagnosed with Addison's Disease and after 5 long nights away from home, she was finally discharged from the Hospital.
This was the first time I got to see her after being Hospitalized. She was very tired and completely out of it.
This was the day before she was discharged. Finally starting to act like herself.
This photo was taken right after she was discharged. We were coming home!!
In case you were wondering about Addison's Disease, I will give you a little overview: Basically, Stella's adrenal glands are not working. When she gets put in stressful situations, her body does not produce the steroids she needs. Normal dogs and humans produce steroids when we are stressed, but her little body cannot.
Addison's is not curable, but it is definitely treatable. She is on medication daily, prednisolone and will be getting injections of Percorten about every 28 days. She will be able to live a normal, healthy life and I'm happy to report she is back to her old self and doing very well. Here are some pictures of her recently:
