Five days and over $6,000 dollars later (emergency surgery & intensive care don’t come cheap). Bree is home and sleeping next to me as I write this.  What might have been a simple “get that bone fragment unstuck and out of her mouth,” with maybe a course of antibiotics, became a nightmarish week.

Tuesday on our evening “family walk,”  Bree came to my side with a concerned look on her face.  Determining she had something stuck in her throat, I dislodged a wad of  “gunk.”  She thanked me, got a drink of water and took off to investigate the area further.

The next morning Bree didn’t touch her breakfast.  While she’s not a food hound, she does always eat, so I knew something was amiss.  I was able to get a vet appt for later that morning.  Meanwhile,  I got her up on the training table several times to check her throat.  She was not co-operative so I couldn’t see anything.  However, I had an inner knowing that something had become lodged, and needed to come out.

When the vet looked, didn’t see anything, & concluded that something had probably irritated her throat but gone on down, it did NOT resonate with me but I did not challenge his evaluation of the situation.

My summation of this now is:  I allowed myself to be “talked out of ”  what I intuitively “KNEW.”  Hopefully I never allow this to happen again.

It almost cost Bree her life!  She was uneasy the rest of Wed., stayed by my side and “walked” with me on the family walk (definitely not Bree!)  During the night, she began having trouble breathing.  Her throat had become so swollen that she couldn’t breathe.

At the E.R. there was barely time to get a tracheotomy tube inserted so they could begin surgery.  Turns out there was a bone fragment stuck between her molars; it had penetrated the soft tissue causing a huge abscess that blocked her windpipe.  Emergency surgery, drain tubes, breathing & feeding tubes followed.  It was “touch and go” for a couple days then she turned the corner.  She came home with me last night.

Keeping her quiet, no working, running and absolutely NO swimming for 2 weeks (until the hole in her trachea heals) seems like a “big deal” but not compared to the thought of never having her company again.

My grandfather used to talk about trusting your “gut.”  I call it “inner knowing” or intuition, but it’s the same thing.  We’re very connected  to our dogs and that “gut” feeling is probably right.

Trust it.